Welcome back to another exciting chapter! A secret gets revealed inadvertently.

Hi Keeper! *preens* Thank you :P I am happy with the way that turned out. And I do agree with the fact that Ryoga doesn't DO anything. But he abused Akane's trust in the worst possible way, and used Ranma's word against him, so he deserves to suffer. I don't believe he has Stockholm - the research on this is patchy and despite representation in popular media, only a few cases have been confirmed. It's more often emotional codependence of some sort. I d say he has more of something like PTSD or emotional deregulation. And yes. Nabiki would do the research. I think while she wants to remain angry she will avoid it, suspecting what she would find. I expect that someone else would be needed to get him into therapy. A doctor... (dun dun dun!)

Guest - neither do all criminals in real life get arrested. It's fiction - if you don't like it for this reason, I suggest you move to the crime fiction. There are dozens of excellent NCIS, CSI, etc stories I can recommend for realism.

Thank you Kayko. Now, ONWARDS! PS. I still need help with Kodachi...

Chapter 9

It was several days of blissful silence later that the girls decided to have a study session to prepare for some of their final exams and to have a sleep over, both to study longer, and to be able to get to know each other better. Shampoo said that it would allow them to find out more about each other away from Ranma and their families, and Ukyo's restaurant was chosen as the most neutral space - Konatsu was secretly delighted by the turn of events, and could always be counted on to stop things from escalating. Picking a nice quiet Saturday, where the girls would only have half a day of school, they made plans, determined to help each other study.

The decision was made with some secrecy until Nabiki sold the information to their father, and despite Soun's protests that the two girls and their various entourage were not to be trusted, Akane was ready to go straight from school to the okonomiyaki restaurant for their session, and study in the back of the shop after helping Ukyo with the majority of the dinner rush, and to carry on studying on Sunday.

That morning, Akane had a large overnight bag with her, on top of the usual school satchel, and she was studiously ignoring her father's fountain of tears.

Wishing Kasumi and everyone else a nice day (except Nabiki, who had had her last exam the day before and could simply sleep and whom she was still annoyed with), Akane walked out the door, unaccompanied by Ranma.

School went relatively well, as usual: Ranma fell asleep after managing to take at least some notes on his worst subjects, Akane and Shampoo good naturedly fought for the best answers in the classes, and Ukyo diligently tried to keep up with everyone else. Thankfully, the day was over, and the girls could finally get to the restaurant and do some studying.

"Greeting, Mistress, Tendo-san, Puu-san." Konatsu was inside, preparing the place to receive its customers. The two guests sighed in contentment at the polite greeting and gratefully handed their bags over to the insisting kunoichi.

Ukyo smiled in greeting at her waitress. "Thanks Konatsu! If you could finish up here with the cleaning, we will do the cooking and plating up. You can have the afternoon off, if you want, though I will need you for the evening rush."

The beautiful boy blushed and bowed. "Mistress, you are very kind. I have taken stock of the ingredients, we should be fine for everything. I will take my leave. Is there any errand that you wish me to preform for you?"

He moved away into the back after receiving a request from Ukyo to purchase some cleaning products, and towards his tiny room until he was ready to leave, while the cook and her guests dropped their bags in the staff area, behind the counter and out of sight of the customers. "How do we do this?" This came from the purple haired girl, who knew how restaurants were run, and needed a plan of attack.

Ukyo shrugged. "Normally, I just cook, and Konatsu takes orders, money and clears up. If I stay on the cooking, could you taken over the serving, Shampoo, and clearing? Akane, would you mind doing the orders, money and pulling up anything we are short from the fridge? We should be a bit more rested that way." Everyone nodded and got to work.

The lunch rush was not too bad, but by the end of three o'clock, when Konatsu returned from his trip and graciously offered to look after whatever stray customer wandered in so that the girls could study, Akane could barely stand. She was also quite angry. "How in the world can you keep going like that for hours? It's child labour!"

Ukyo laughed, "Honey, it's my life! And in any case, any job usually involves a lot of hard work. You do really well in school, and I can barely keep up with you, but I have been in a restaurant since before I could walk, so it's easy for me. I am sure that Shachan feels the same by now. It's difficult, but the end result of your labour is always rewarding."

Akane grumbled. "But it's so hard! All that time on your feet, and so little to show for it. And how do you deal with the guys trying to grab you?"

Shampoo frowned. "You are a martial artist – you learn to dodge without spilling any food. Much harder to do when its ramen, but a few burns and I learned. Aren't you used to it from the Hentai Horde and all the boys in your life?"

Akane blushed and got angry. "No! Why would I ever let a pervert touch me like that?"

The other two women started at each other, not really saying a word, for a moment, before smiling. Akane did not see the deep frown on each of their faces. Ukyo decided to break the cloud above the bluette's head first. "Let's get studying! You need to explain history to Shanchan and we could all do with some science and English practice. I need help with almost everything, but I should be ok with maths, so we can just test each other. How much you think we will be able to accomplish before dinner?"

Things didn't go to badly after that, now that minds were off men. The girls all coached each other in their respective strong and weak points, before Konatsu came to the back and advised that the customers were coming in on masse again, and he needed assistance. All three stood up with a sigh and reached for their various aprons.

The dinner rush was worse and lasted much longer than the lunch one had, and by closing time Akane could barely stand on her feet. The other two girls and Konatsu seemed fine, if she ignored the yawns that the girls were all sporting. Ukyo, seeing that no one was in any shape to continue working, made a suggestion. "How about we all go to bed and just wake up earlier than we planned? It's not like anything will go into our heads now."

The two others nodded at chef's suggestion, and picked up their bags to find the toothbrushes and changes of clothes.

Once all three had finished washing up and were together in Ucchan's furo, it was closer to eleven, and Akane could barely keep her eyes open.

Ukyo, sitting off in a corner with a cloth on her head, was revelling in the luxury of a bath, but was feeling pensive at the same time. She spoke, almost to herself.

"You know, I am glad that Ranma and I didn't work out."

The two girls in the tub both looked at Ukyo, with slightly incredulous looks. The chef blushed and waved a hand in front of her face. "What? I really think that our relationship would have failed in the long run! Nabiki mentioned a few things to me, and the more I think about it, the more I agree with her."

"What do you mean, Ukyo? Did she threaten you?" Shampoo looked concerned, and Akane too was looking worried.

The chef laughed. "Oh no, she opened my eyes to a few truths. Ranma has always been fiercely independent, and to be honest, considering that the first time I met him, I was trying to kill him, I really should not have been surprised we had never hit it off. I should have recognised the hand of friendship and left it at that. That way I could have had a loyal defender, instead of trying to get him to settle his debts another way."

"Oh yeah. You tried to kill him for abandoning you when we first met."

"Mm. The thing is, if I had recognised that at the time, we could have stayed friends and the panda would be a nice carpet somewhere. I am pretty sure that the engagement would never have happened, and we would have become as close as siblings. And Nabiki implied, and I now see that Ranma really only wants stability in his life and flexibility from the people around him to adapt to the madness that follows him. I had the flexibility, but wasn't so receptive to being a stable aspect of his life in the way that he wanted. That should have been something that I needed to have done, being his oldest friend and all. And he has an overinflated male ego. He would never have fit in within my restaurant, and I would have been unhappy if I was relying on him and he suddenly left for a trip. Or worse, I had to give it all up to be a stay at home wife. I would not have been able to deal with his claims to his superiority or answering to that thieving panda and Nodoka-san."

The girls all giggled, before Shampoo looked thoughtful and suddenly unhappy, before she spoke up. "Imagine how unhappy he would have been in the village! He would have had to choose between having a curse and enjoying high status and freedom, or getting a cure and staying at home and raising children. He would not have been allowed to have any special cases for him, if he close to become full time man. Either way, he would have been treated as little more than property, with no option to leave or be free." The purple haired girl blushed. "I was too focused on getting husband to come home with me, that I didn't consider that he had feelings. I was taught that men are nothing – I see that I was wrong. I needed to respect him as a martial artist AND as a human being if I was to make any progress. I failed, I did not see his pride or honour as important, and almost got myself killed. Neither of our systems work well – we need a fully fair system for both genders. Perhaps when I go back I can balance mine out..."

"Then you will have to educate the men to their rights in your village, and remind the women that just because they have power, they should not abuse it." Akane was saying sagely. Ukyo grinned and butted in, "Just make sure that they don't take it to the extreme – or you will have people malleting each other a la Akane." Seeing the angry look on the dark haired girl's face, Ukyo burst out laughing. "Oh, I m as guilty as you are of taking feminism a little too far, but the image of you beating up people because of the conditioned reaction to the Hentai Horde should drive the point home. For both genders. Even if they love each other."

It was Akane's turn to blush, and she submerged her face in the water up to her eyes. The other two girls giggled and patted her head good naturedly, waiting for her to come out of the depth of the furo.

Akane finally emerged and shook her head. "I am not sure that we would work, you know. He is just such a womaniser and a pervert! Using his female body to spy on people, being a student of Happosai, chasing after all of your girls! I don't love him and I don't think this engagement will ever work."

The two next to her stared at the youngest Tendo with a mixture of amusement and despair. The chef shook her head. Deciding to not tackle the whole love issue, she spread her arms in exasperation. "You do realise that out of all the boys that we have dealt with, Ranma has to be the LEAST perverted. He can't help his curse, and the number of times that the situation has forced him to use it kind of makes it more justifiable. The few times that he did something that can be considered perverted, he either had help from a consenting 'victim' or promptly fainted from shame. Ranchan has way too much honour to exploit anyone knowingly. I mean, what has he done that was inappropriate to you, in his girl form?"

For some reason, Akane almost exploded. "He lied to me! The first time we met, he pretended to be a girl! And then I walked into the bathroom to find a boy in the tub! Can you imagine how scared I was, and how embarrassed, to find a boy in my bathroom? After everything that had happened at school? And then I find out that I am engaged to a shape shifter who has at least three other fiancés!"

Shampoo blinked. "You do realise that pretty much all of those are his father's fault, don't you?"

Akane blinked back.

"The too too stupid panda sold and engaged him for food while keeping his son starved, he broke his word dozens of times, caused Ranma to acquire his curse and has done nothing but lie. To everyone. Ranma was probably scared to be sold off again or of how people would see his curse to be sensible. And you walked in on him?"

Akane blushed. "I thought that he was a girl."

The girls roared with laughter.

"Alright, alright! I didn't know. He should have said something."

"Do be reasonable. I had a lot more time to adjust, but I always felt uneasy telling people my status or story. Would you have told total strangers that you turned into a guy?"

"…"

"Did you knock before you went into the bathroom?"

"..."

"Oh dear, Acchan, what are we going to do with you? Answer me this. Has he ever tried to defeat you for a date or peep on you intentionally, like those freaks at the school?"

Akane was tempted to say yes, but considering Gosunkugi, Kuno and a lot of other guys, Ranma was almost a saint. The one time he did, she was in on it, and had a swim suit on. "You may be right. I don't think he did it on purpose. But he still trained with Happosai and he didn't discourage you chaisn gafter him. Makes him a womaniser at the very least."

Ukyo suddenly became very sombre when she remembered that they used to be engaged and stopped smiling. The reason that Nabiki had all but beaten in to her brain came straight to the top. Shampoo was in a similar position. "Acchan, you are an idiot. He tried to make sure that we didn't get hurt or abused, and to avoid our honour being tarnished."

The bluette cocked her head to the side, enquiring.

Shampoo sighed. Apparently Akane, despite being smart, completely missed the intricacies of the world, that Ranma had somehow managed to pick up on. A talk with Elder Lu Fa had helped readjust her understanding of some details of Japanese culture, and she had arrived at the same conclusion Ukyo had reached. "If I was thrown into a spring and turned into a cat for one failure, imagine what would have happened to me if I returned without a husband? Ranma probably thought that I would get killed – it would be worse in actual fact. I would have either have been made outcast or forced into some sort of servitude or slavery, and forbidden from ever having children, cast out form the rest of my family. That is what Grandmother had to undergo after she failed to marry Happosai – 15 years of working for the tribe, with no home, nothing, and she didn't even fail to enforce a kiss of death like I did. She was lucky that she was as strong as she was, or she would not have even found an Amazon male to marry."

"Right. And if my dad abandoned me and registered me as a boy until I killed or married Ranma, he probably would have struck me off the clan rolls for a failure. So Ranma probably kept up the ruse to ensure that neither of us suffered a fate that was not of our or his making. In any case, if he chose Akane, my best bet would have been to be a mistress - something you would not have stood for, Acchan. If he married me, he would have had to commit seppuku for dishonouring your family, so we would have lost in the end, no matter what."

Akane looked on horrified. "It really could have happened?" The other two nodded. "If not for your sister, we would still be doing the dance, since while Ranma had obligations, he could not make an honourable choice, and thus we would be free from punishment, and he would be free to live on. He did it for us as much as for his own ego."

Akane began to cry. "How, how could they? Don't they care?" There was little question as to whom she meant. Turning to the girls, she grabbed both by the arms. "No matter what, as long as we have a roof over our own heads, you are both welcome. It isn't YOUR faults that we live in such cruel societies or with such thoughtless people."

The three former rivals all looked at each other and nodded, moving into a lose hug. "Yes, you will be my Amazon sisters." "And you will be my family. My dad's not much of a dad anyway."

Eventually, they moved away from each other, leaning on the various sides of the furo.

Shampoo suddenly turned to Akane, bright red, and stuttering in a way that she had not done since she had revealed she could speak Japanese normally, uttered. "Why does Akane like Ryoga if she likes Ranma? Shampoo curious?"

Ukyo opened her eyes and lifted the towel off her eyes. "What are you talking like that for, honey?"

Shampoo blushed. "Shampoo speaks like this when shy? Would Akane answer, please?"

Akane looked surprised, especially considering the previous conversation. "Well, he just seems nice! He always pays me complements, is attentive, polite, never insults me, always brings me a souvenir, and is not too over bearing. He's a great friend."

"Even though he cut off your hair, damaged your house, and uses you?"

Akane frowned. "Well, he is a little silly with his rivalry to Ranma, and yes he cut off my hair and has destroyed the dojo with you girls," she looked stern for a second, while her companions tried to not look too guilty. "But he has never used me. He's probably the one I could trust the most."

"So you let him into your bed willingly? You no love Ranma?"

The change in Akane's demeanour was instantaneous as she exploded. "Who told you that, you little hussy? Me, let a guy into my bed? Do you think I am a pervert?" Ukyo had to jump up and tackle the girl, stopping her from malleting Shampoo to death. The purple haired girl looked stricken that some one whom she declared sister would be so dishonourable as to attempt to strike her only minutes later, but tried to hide it.

It took a minute for Ukyo to subdue Akane, using the girl's anger against her, and by then, two of them were out of the tub and on the cold floor. "Get off me, Ukyo! I need to make her pay for that!"

Ukyo sat on her torso instead. "Sorry, Acchan, I don't want you killing my friend. But Shamps, what made you say something like that?"

Shampoo looked over the edge of the furo, considering it to be safe. "Akane takes too too sneaky pig boy to bed with her, when he is her pet. He boasted about it a few times, saying that Ryoga get further with Akane than Ranma, since he has seen her naked. I doubt that it is true, pig-boy faints at the sight of skin, but he has used secret knowledge to tell us Akane's secrets before to beat Ranma."

"Pig boy?"

"Hai. Ryoga has Jusenkyo curse. Turns into a small black pig wearing a bandana when struck with cold water. Almost ate him once."

Suddenly, Akane threw her restrainer off her, and laughed. "No way is Ryoga P-chan. He probably knows that my pet hates Ranma and used it against him. Kami, he's never been to Jusenkyo until recently! It's ok Shampoo, you must just be confused. Though maybe he has overheard me playing with P-chan and used that knowledge?" Her eyes went hard. "I need to talk to him about eavesdropping."

But Shampoo looked very serious. "The first time I met him, he was a pig. I wanted to make him into some ramen broth, but the moment I dropped him in the pot, he changed. If Akane not believe me, ask Mousse or Cologne – they have seen it too."

Akane slowly looked at the Amazon. Something was tingling at her awareness. The necklace like the one the crazy skater fixed on P-chan appearing on Ryoga. Ryoga vanishing and P-chan appearing.

Ranma in her room as a boy, but with a kettle none the less.

The bastard had known.

"Shampoo. Swear to me. Swear you are not lying."

Shampoo nodded. "I swear on my mother's honour. The only reason that I never told you was because I was jealous, and after a dozen mishaps I was sure you knew and were using it to bate Ranma. Ukyo, are you ok?"

The chef was sitting there, behind Akane, stunned. Very quietly, she asked "Shamps, you sure?" The girl nodded, and tears immediately sprung to Ukyo's eyes. "No one will want me now. How could he?"

Akane lost both her incredulity and anger in that moment. "Ucchan, you ok?" The brunette shook her head.

"Anything I can do?"

"Help me make pork okonomiyaki?"

Akane did a double take. "Ucchan, what did he do?" A thought came to her. "Oh no. He stayed here as a pig, didn't he?"

The now crying girl nodded. "I kept him here a few times when I was either angry at you, or the weather was too bad to bring him over. He looked at me, and always got a nose bleed. I want to kill him. He violated me. I never knew. I never knew..."

Her own betrayal forgotten, Akane hugged her friend, and tried to control the sobs. "It's ok. Shampoo and I will never tell anyone, and if Ryoga tries anything, you have my word, he will end up in a pancake. But, promise me one thing?" Ukyo nodded. "Let Nabiki deal with him first. I can guarantee that she will be discreet and he will be in a lot of pain. Something tells me that Nabiki never knew, or she would have sold that information to you. Now, let's get you off this floor. Shampoo, can you pass the towels please? We have a Char Sui bun to plan."

AN: I don't think I need to tell you what will happen next. Anyone with plans for Kodachi, pls PM me. Riniko22, I promise to get back to you, give me a few more days to decide :)