Author notes: Welcome to chapter 6 in which Ranma is confronted with the reality that even as girl she still somehow ends up having multiple other girls chasing after her.

Chapter 6

It was early morning in Nerima. The sun was just beginning to rise and everything was quiet. Even at the Tendo Dojo everything was calm and peaceful. In the guestroom Ranma Saotome, heir turned heiress of the Saotome clan, was still sleeping soundly. At least until her father Gnema grabbed her by the shirt and yelled loudly: "All right boy, time for your training. Wake up!"

The redhead did just that and was about to give her father a piece of her mind, only to suddenly feel herself sent flying as Genma unceremoniously tossed her out the window. With a startled yelp and a loud splash, the Saotome girl landed in the Koi Pond. Furiously she reemerged from the water and shouted at her father, who by now had landed on the lawn close to the pond: "What the hell was that for pops?"

"I figured that would wake your lazy ass up Ranma. Plus, throwing you in that pond never gets old." Retorted Genma with a smug smile.

Growling in annoyance Ranma shot back: "How does it not get old? I mean, it doesn't even do anything anymore since I'm a girl all the time now."

Her father nodded sagely and answered: "I too feared that that would make it less entertaining. However, I am glad to say that even without you turning from boy to girl, throwing you into the pond has lost almost nothing of its comedic value." With a cry of rage Ranma launched herself at the elder Saotome and an intense sparring session broke out between the two martial artists.

From her window Akane, who had been woken by the clamor, rolled her eyes at the spectacle. "Ugh, some things apparently never change."

…

Sometime later Ranma and Akane were walking their usual way to school. Kasumi had originally protested that Ranma go to school already, however Genma had insisted that his son turned daughter shouldn't hide like some coward. And the young Saotome naturally took this as a challenge and insisted on going as a result. Not that the reluctant Saotome girl was especially looking forward to school, but it was probably preferable to go there instead of hanging around her father and hearing him nag about what a cowardly disgrace she was. Which, coming from a man, whose various secret techniques often included running away or submissively begging for mercy, was quite rich.

Nonetheless Ranma was now gloomily walking on top of the fence while Akane was walking on the sidewalk as usual. To be fair though, Ranma did feel better about herself again today. Mostly because the morning had been spent in a way that was (for Tendo household standards) completely normal and that normality had restored some of her severely damaged self-esteem. After a few minutes of awkward silence, the youngest Tendo hesitantly spoke up: "So Ranma, what exactly are we going to tell everyone at school? About why you are… uhm… attending as girl now?"

That visibly darkened the redhead's mood again and she dejectedly sighed: "I have no idea. No way am I going to share the real details. All those gossiping jerks will probably get them eventually anyways from Nabiki. But at least then I'll have the satisfaction of knowing that one of them had to pay her exorbitant prices."

Akane realized that maybe bringing that up wasn't the best way to start a conversation and retorted: "Alright. I guess we can just say that you are stuck as girl again without giving any details whatsoever."

"Sounds good enough for now." Confirmed her former fiancée with an unenthusiastic shrug.

"Maybe I can convince Nabiki to not go and spread the whole story around all of Nerima either." Akane further tried to be helpful: "I mean I wouldn't want it to be public knowledge if anything like that happened to me."

Ranma shot the blue haired teen a grateful look and glumly answered: "Thanks Akane, honestly. But I'm not holding my breath here. If something can be used to make money Nabiki will use it to make money. And me falling for some obvious drugging attempt like a complete idiot and being permanently locked as girl as a result is too good a story for your sister to not make people pay to hear it."

Frowning Akane couldn't help but agree to some degree: "Well, you might have a point there. Nabiki can sink pretty low whenever money is involved."

"That's an understatement." Grumbled Ranma, who had, to her chagrin, been exploited by the middle Tendo sisters underhanded and sometimes downright criminal money-making methods quite often.

The two teenage girls continued to walk in companionable silence for a few more moments when suddenly they heard a bicycle bell ring out from behind them. Being already familiar with what was about to happen by now, Ranma swiftly jumped of the fence down on the ground. And not a second too early because a second later Shampoo on her bike landed exactly where the redhead had been standing on the fence before.

"Ni hao Ranma." She cheerfully greeted.

"Hi Shampoo. What's up?" The pigtailed girl asked slightly wary, since she expected to be enthusiastically glomped or something along those lines. However, Shampoo managed to restrain herself from doing just that. Mostly since even she knew that it probably wouldn't be the wisest of moves to pull on a person that had been sexually assaulted not long ago.

So instead the purple haired girl just jovially replied: "Shampoo is making delivery and just happened to see airen by chance. So, decided to drop by and say hello. So how is airen today. Feeling better yet?"

The Saotome boy turned girl couldn't help but feel a bit touched by the obvious concern that could be heard in Shampoo's voice as she asked that last question. Shrugging the pigtailed redhead tried to play everything down nonetheless and answered: "I guess, I'm feeling slightly better today. I'm still not really happy though, I'll have to say." The amazon just nodded understandingly and looked at her crush sympathetically.
"Shampoo understands. Is really though situation for airen. But hey, maybe great-grandmother finds cure after all. Would be nice, yes? Maybe until then Shampoo can cheer you up, yes?" Said the Chinese girl before suddenly her eyes lit up and she exclaimed: "Oh. Shampoo knows. How about Shampoo takes you on date? It will be fun, Shampoo promises. Maybe it will distract airen from current problems?"

"Wait. What?" Ranma quickly retorted and waved her hands defensively: "No, really I'm fine no need to cheer me up…. I… Wait a second. Don't you normally ask me to take you on a date?" Noticing this change from the usual formula Ranma couldn't help but ask.

Shampoo shrugged and nonchalantly retorted: "Is true. Since normally boy is supposed to ask out girl. But since we both girls now, Shampoo may as well take initiative. So, you accept, yes? Good."

"I never said tha…." The Saotome girl started to protest. Unfortunately for her she was then hit over the head by a bookbag. Letting out an annoyed "Ow" she rubbed her head and turned to a visibly furious Akane, who was still brandishing her bag: "Hey, what did you do that for?"

Fuming the youngest Tendo daughter yelled at her former fiancée: "Ranma you jerk. You are unbelievable. How dare you flirt with the Chinese floozy right in front of me you pervert." "Shampoo is not floozy!" Shampoo objected loudly. But she was completely ignored by the two other girls who continued their argument.

Getting annoyed Ranma shot back: "I wasn't even flirting. She was flirting with me as you might have noticed. Also, even if I was flirting with Shampoo, which for the record I wasn't, what do you care? You just told me yesterday that you aren't even interested in me anymore. Plus, our engagement was cancelled. So why do you still have to hit me when I do as little as interacting with another girl?"

Well that was good news Shampoo couldn't help but think upon hearing this. Akane meanwhile had to mentally admit that Ranma might have a decent point this time, which was weird enough. She just stared at her red-haired friend dumbly for a few moments. But since she wasn't very good at admitting it when Ranma was right she decided to get angry again instead: "Well, as you just said yourself. The engagement only ended yesterday you idiot. If you had any shred of decency in you, you wouldn't be cozying up with one of your other suitors today already you pervert."

"I am not "cozying up" with anyone!" Ranma yelled back in exasperation: "You are such a thick headed un-cute tomboy sometimes." This resulted naturally in the Tendo girl giving an inarticulate scream of rage followed by her book bag slamming down on the read headed girl's head again. The blow sent the heiress of the Saotome school of anything goes martial arts right to the ground and flat to her face. She groaned in pain.

Shampoo meanwhile was pondering whether to leave or not. By now she doubted she was going to get a date out of this anytime soon. Better return when the quarrel between those two was over. As still visibly pissed Akane was now screaming at her ex-fiancée: "Well if I'm so un-cute maybe you should go on a date with the crazy purple haired psychopath that tried to kill you. I'm sure she is much cuter than me." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm during the last part.

"Hey…" the amazon protested from the sidelines looking a bit hurt at being called a crazy psychopath.

Getting back to her feet Ranma grumbled: "Maybe I will. At least Shampoo doesn't hit me for no reason all the time."

Scoffing the Tendo girl gave the redhead a last devastating glare, turned around and stomped away: "You do that you jerk. Like I care."

"You know what? All right I'll go on a date with Shampoo, if you don't care." The Saotome girl yelled after her friend.

Shampoo couldn't believe her ears. Did that just really happen. Excitedly she jumped off her bicycle and landed right next to a startled Ranma. In her euphoria, she promptly forgot to speak Japanese and babbled happily in Chinese while practically jumping up and down with joy. This just earned her a confused look from her beloved redhead.

Finally getting her overflowing emotions back under control the purple haired amazon managed to speak Japanese again: "Oh, Shampoo so so happy. Airen not going to regret it. Shampoo promise. Ranma has time on Sunday, yes?"

The girl in question scratched the back of her head nervously. She hadn't really intended to actually go on a date with Shampoo. Mostly she had just wanted to make Akane mad. Bust seeing how Shampoo was so happy beyond belief she really couldn't bring herself to tell the amazon that. Besides the purple haired warrioress was kind of cute like this. So, she just replied: "Uh… I guess."

Beaming the other girl stated: "Good. Shampoo going to pick you up around three. Thank you Airen. Thank you, thank you." With that the Chinese girl excitedly got back on her bike and drove away still smiling form one ear to another and happily babbling something in her native tongue. Ranma just stood there a little dumbfounded. She really needed to pay more attention to what she was saying during an argument.

…

School had been, as expected, complete hell for Ranma. Not only did everyone gawk and stare at her when she showed up in girl-form but she was also hounded by almost all her classmates with various questions after she grudgingly admitted that she was stuck as a girl again. She did brush all of them off and told them no details of course but it was still annoying to keep dealing with the same questions over and over. Eventually Hinako did restore order in the classroom by draining most of the students' Ki. But she was apparently blaming the redheaded girl for the general inattentiveness of the students since she gave Ranma angry glares throughout the day.

"What's her problem? It's not like I intentionally got stuck as a girl just to disrupt class." Ranma thought gloomily. Furthermore, Akane was still giving her the cold shoulder-treatment after their earlier quarrel. Really, what was her deal? On the plus side, Ukyo was currently not attending classes due to being on a training trip until Monday. That at least meant that Ranma could postpone breaking the news to her childhood friend. That was one conversation she was not looking forward to.

In any case the Saotome girl did manage to make it through the day somehow and was now walking back towards the Tendo Dojo. Akane was still mad at her so she was walking alone, opting for the longer route to avoid being glared at by her blue haired friend. Overall Ranma felt emotionally exhausted. Her life was a huge mess right now. Well, even more so than usually. How was she going to get out of this again? She highly doubted she could stand being locked as a girl for twelve years (because let's face it, with her abysmal luck of course it would take the maximum amount of years for the potion to wear off). Maybe Cologne would find some way to reverse this Ikuchi oil nonsense after all. That was what the redhead was currently still hoping for in any case.

Suddenly Ranma was snapped out of her troubled musings by a very familiar voice calling out: "Oh Ranma darling, catch."

The next moment she already saw something flying at her at high speed in the corner of her eyes. Due to her highly trained reflexes the young martial artist was easily able to snatch the object out of the air. Looking at it she visibly paled upon realizing it was a black rose. She mentally braced herself for some sort of poisonous gas to start spraying into her face. After a few moments of nothing happening the redhead relaxed a bit and turned towards Kodachi Kuno, who was standing a few feet away in her school uniform.

"Oh, hi there, Kodachi. What do you want?", Ranma asked warily: "If it's a fight you want, let's get it over with quickly. I'm really not in the mood today."

The black rose just blinked in and tilted her head sideways slightly. With apparent confusion, she asked: "What? Why would I want to fight you darling? I already promised to not attack you, even if you are a girl. You are not making any sense."

"Well, I just thought that you might be angry at me for getting stuck as a girl and since you are not exactly the…." The young Saotome started to say. Then she quickly stopped herself from talking any further when she realized she should probably not question Kodachi's sanity right in front of the black haired Kuno girl: "Uhm, never mind. What do you want?"

The other girl responded: "I'm glad you asked my dearest Ranma. First of all, I'd like to apologize for my behavior yesterday. It was rather undignified of me to just run away like that after finding out that you were somewhat permanently stuck in female form. My emotions did get the better of me in that particular situation I'm afraid. Only later did it occur to me that it was pretty selfish of me to run away from you during what was no doubt a rather unpleasant time for you as well. I should have been there for you to comfort you my love, instead of leaving you alone with all those Chinese peasants instead."

Ranma just stared at Kodachi with an utterly confused expression. Was the black Rose really apologizing to her for running out on her yesterday? And what for anyways? Finally managing to respond the redhead stuttered: "Uh… no big deal?... I guess. I mean I'm mostly fine again right now. No need to apologize… or anything."

The Kuno girl seemed to be visibly relieved at that and smiled brightly at the Saotome heiress. For once it seemed to be a genuine smile and not a psychotic smirk as well, which Ranma had to admit made the black-haired girl look rather nice.

"I'm glad you aren't mad at me Ranma darling." The black Rose replied: "In that case I want to address the second reason I sought you out today my dear."

Ranma sighed. She just knew it. It was almost impossible to meet Kodachi Kuno without that ending in unpleasantness. Readying for the worst the redhead asked: "And that would be?"

With another surprisingly genuine smile the black-haired girl retorted: "If I remember recent events correctly, you promised to go on a date with me this weekend, darling. If you have time I'd very much like to still take you up on that offer."

The redheads face twisted into an expression of utter bafflement. Off all things this had been the last Ranma expected out of the black Rose. Completely losing her composure she stuttered: "Wh… What? But. I mean… I. Uh? Well, it's not like I wouldn't…. I mean… I did promise to do it… but… You do remember that I'm most likely not going back to being a man anytime, soon right?"

"Yes, I do darling. What is your point exactly?" Kodachi shot back with a quizzical look.

"I… I mean you were pretty into me when I was a boy. I just… I mean… I didn't think you'd still want to date me now that I'm… female… full time." The redhead awkwardly explained her point.

"Oh. That." The Kuno girl retorted, face lighting up in understanding: "Yes I'll admit my initial reaction to you being female permanently now was rather negative. But after some… contemplation about my own feelings I came to a conclusion that actually surprised me a bit myself. Yes, I am still romantically interested in you Ranma darling."

Surprised Ranma blurted out: "You are into girls?"

Kodachi thought about that statement a few seconds and then answered: "Bluntly stated? Yes, I am. Well I'm into both genders apparently but yes, I came to the realization that I am attracted to beautiful girls as well as handsome boys. And you my dear are breathtakingly beautiful." During the last words her eyes shortly roamed all over the Saotome girls figure with obvious appreciation.

The redheaded martial artist couldn't help but blush at that compliment, even if she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about being complimented about her female beauty.

Meanwhile Kodachi continued: "So Ranma darling I'd still like to go on a date with you if you are feeling up to it. I mean, I'm guessing you also are still attracted to girls, or does this curse also mess with your…"
"What?" A thoroughly embarrassed Saotome heiress cried out: "No! No, it doesn't. Thank the gods. I'm still interested in girls and only girls."

"Ah, good." The martial arts gymnast replied chipperly: "in that case I'd like to formally ask you out for dinner tomorrow evening."

Sighing heavily Ranma agreed: "Fine. I'll go out with you Kodachi. I still owe you that much. But remember the rules we agreed on yesterday." Once more the face of the infamous black rose lit up with a genuine smile and giddy excitement. Again, Ranma had to admit that Kodachi actually looked cute when she was like this.

Barely suppressing the urge to jump up and down in joy the young Kuno immediately assented: "Of course. No explosives, poisons, or anything like that and I won't tell anyone about the date. I'm just so happy to finally be able to go on a date with you my love. Let's meet up in front of my house tomorrow evening. I'd pick you up, but since you want to keep this a secret I better don't show up in front of the Tendos lowly residence."

Ranma opened her mouth to say something, but Kodachi was too caught up in her own excitement and just continued to talk undeterred: "Let's say that we meet at about 6 o clock in the evening. Oh, and could you please wear some nice clothes?" Suddenly she paused and looked at her red-haired crush contemplatively. Sounding rather unsure now she asked: "Do you even have any nice clothes for your female form my love? I'll also gladly accept it if you have any nice, male looking clothes as long as they actually fit your female form."

Ranma scratched her neck, starting to get embarrassed as she admitted: "Sadly no to the latter. I never really bothered to buy any male clothes that fit my female side, but I do a few sets of "nice" girly outfits."

At that Kodachi just looked a bit surprised and questioningly looked at her crush with a raised eyebrow. The redhead blushed and started to explain: "I used them as disguises and stuff like that sometimes." Kodachi smirked and then teasingly stated: "Well, now you've made me curious. I guess one of those outfits of yours will do tomorrow. I'm looking forward to our date my love. But for now, Farwell. Until tomorrow. Don't be late."

"Yeah, bye Kodachi. See you tomorrow I guess." The other girl retorted unsure of what to say. Then suddenly the black Rose produced her usual ribbon out of her school uniform and made it twirl in the air. Black Rose petals started to drift through the air and suddenly Kodachi had disappeared, notably without insane laughter this time. Ranma had to admit that she always thought that trick, while overly theatric, was still kind of cool.

With a sigh Ranma took stock of her situation. Alright so she somehow ended up agreeing to date both Shampoo and Kodachi in the next two, days and that even though she was stuck as a girl herself. How did that end up happening? This was going to end in some sort of disaster for sure. When it became clear that Ranma might be stuck as a girl somewhat permanent she had figured that this would also pretty much stop her fiancées and, in Kodachi's case, female admirers from pursuing her. Apparently, that was not the case. Ranma was unsure how to feel about that. On one hand she was kind of glad that at least some of the girls still liked her well enough to still want to date her. That was a much-needed self-esteem boost for the redhead. On the other hand, the whole multiple girls chasing after her had also always caused her great deals of unwanted stress. Still pondering the whole thing Ranma started to walk to the Tendo Dojo.