Chapter Sixteen – Denial, Denial

Ukyo

Ukyo was having a bad month.

No, scratch that – she was having a bad decade, ever since Ranma Saotome and his good-for-nothing father had run off with her okonomiyaki cart, leaving her with nothing but a bad engagement and a healthy dose of resentment. The mysterious letter she had received from a mysterious sender was supposed to be the end of her troubles – only for her to find that Ranma Saotome had never been a boy in the first place!

Or, at least, that's what Ranma had told her. Raging rumors through the halls of Furinkan on Ukyo's first day, a day that she, maybe a little selfishly, had wanted to be about her new arrival, told a different story. And now, Ukyo Konji, already wound up, was furious.

"Whadya think about Ranma's cousin, huh?"

"Damn! Saotome should've told us he had such a hot cousin! Think she's got a boyfriend?"

"They really look alike, don't they?"

"I hope Ranma's doing alright in China. Heard Ranko's just as good at martial arts though, so I guess a quiet school year's more than we could really ask for."

The last overheard conversation, whispered between two girls Ukyo recognized from her shadow day as Tendo's friends, made her blood boil the most.

"Honestly, I don't believe this a bit. Ranma and Ranko? And Ranko likes to go by Ranma. Besides, didn't you see the way Akane looks at her. It's the same. Something weird's going on, I know it."

"What, though, Yuka? It's not- Ranko, she's definitely a girl."

"Dunno, but I'm gonna get to the bottom of it, let me tell you that!"

Fishy. Fishy as hell. If Ukyo knew one thing about her darling Ran-chan, it was her ability to slip out of any situation, no matter how sticky. Which was why Ukyo was busy stalking after her 'fiancee,' ready to strangle the stupid redhead for putting her through hell.

(Somewhere in Germany, Ryoga sneezed, shot a panicked look over his shoulder, and kept running.)

There they were. Ranma followed Akane out the door onto the roof, a bento clutched in one hand. Ukyo stormed up the stair after them and flung the roof door open with a clang, stopping the other two girls in their tracks. Ranma froze; Akane laughed nervously, backing away from Ukyo.

"Ranma," Ukyo snarled, ignoring the stares she got from the other kids on the rooftop.

Ranma gave a sheepish, defensive grin. "Hi Ucchan?"

"You have thirty seconds to explain why the hell I shouldn't go and drag your 'cousin' back to Nerima. Unless, of course," she smiled sweetly. "He never left. Isn't that right, Ran-chan."

Gulping, Ranma crossed her arms over her chest and glowered. "Y'ain't gonna find him," she muttered. "And even if ya did, he's not gonna remember you. Your friend was me, Ukyo, and I'm sorry Pops can't get a shred of decency through his dumb panda skull, but that ain't gonna change. Me. And it's, uh, yeah, tough that we showed up here 'bout the same time, but-"

"Tough?" Ukyo held up a trembling fist. "You show up when he 'leaves' and you expect me to believe tough? You tricked me once, and I'm not gonna get tricked again, sugar!"

Akane looked ready to put a metal rod through her skull. Ranma shrugged, uncomfortable but confident. "Believe what you want. This is me, Ucchan. And yeah, my cousin and I, we look real similar. But he ain't your friends and I am. Was. Could be, I guess, if you care. If not..." Ranma shrugged. "I got 'Kane and Pops and the Tendos. I'll be alright."

Ukyo's lip trembled. She became all-too-aware of everybody's eyes locked on her, evaluating, judging. "You're lying," she said, her voice cracking. "I saw it then. I see it now. What are you lying about? I don't believe in coincidences."

Like that letter that brought me to Furinkan? A little voice at the back of her mind whispered.

"So what?" Ranma shot back, her voice harsh. She spoke with such a flat tone, Ukyo could easily mistake her for a guy, pre-pubescent maybe, if she wasn't looking. She flinched. "Ya think we're the same. You gonna call me a pervert again? Some kinda cross-dresser? Magic?"

At that point, Ukyo was too upset to wonder why Ranma's voice had been so raw on the last question. Instead, her eyes burned with tears. She turned away from her former friend with a huff, digging her nails into her palm, and stormed off to the girl's bathroom to cry.

She was hard-pressed to come up with a way her first day could have gone worse. A bad decade, indeed. No, all Ukyo had too look forward to was a long, thankless night working her restaurant and a lonely futon, knowing she'd blown her only chance at fixing her life's biggest problem and, possibly, her one true friendship she had left.

At least the brown-haired girl with the ice cold eyes who'd handed her a tissue had been nice.

Nabiki

Nabiki watched Ukyo push past her out of the bathroom stoically, not revealing her inner conflict. She'd listened in on her fight with Ranma, heard the rumors already circulating about the girl. They weren't kind. Ukyo wasn't going to have it easy at Furinkan.

I hope you know what you're doing, Ranma… Nabiki sighed, glaring at a passing senior who owed her a thousand yen. The girl yelped and scampered away. Cause I don't like this. I don't like this at all.

Nabiki knew that feeling. Nothing was worse than getting punished for being right.

Those affairs never stayed secret for long.

Ranma

"RANMA!"

Ranma turned around in time to see Ryoga charging toward him, filthy and wild-eyed, his pack slung over his shoulder. He blinked, then blinked again. "Uh- What's up, Ryoga?"

"Ya gotta help me!" Ryoga shouted, falling to his knees at Ranma's feet. The lost boy didn't seem to notice or care that he was getting dirt on Ranma's new t-shirt and slacks. Ranma didn't want to admit it, or else he'd never get out of shopping again, but he really liked the clothes Akane and Nabiki had picked out for him. They were nice, neutral, and easy to move in.

Ranma brought his attention back to Ryoga. I haven't seen him since we tossed him out of the dojo for being a dick, huh… He felt a twinge of guilt – he'd missed Ryoga, even if he hadn't been back in his life for long. "Look, Ryoga, I wanted to apologize-"

"Don't worry about that!" Ryoga exclaimed, eyes wide with fear. "You're talking about what happened back at the dojo, right? I was being dumb. I don't give a shit, boy, girl, neither, both physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, meta-physical-"

Ranma blinked. "What's meta-physical?"

Ryoga shrugged. "No idea. But forget about that!" He froze, turning white as a sheet, and pointed a shaking finger behind Ranma. "Worry about her."

Turning, Ranma blinked at the girl that had come up behind her. She was somehow silhouetted in broad daylight, but he could make out blue hair and two strange looking clubs. "My beloved!" she shouted in Chinese. "Who is this craven you're clinging to? Should I kill them?!"

Kill them? Beloved? Ranma jumped away from Ryoga and shook his head rapidly, searching for his Mandarin. "Don't kill!" he said, wincing at how after years wandering China his Chinese could still be so bad. "Who are you? What do you want with Ryoga?"

The girl stopped and blinked. "The red-haired girl speaks Chinese," she muttered. "I am Shan Pu, warrior of the Amazon tribe," she told Ranma, speaking simply and slowly. It was patronizing, but Ranma still had a hard time catching every word. "Beloved defeated me in combat. Now, I must marry him. Beloved keeps running, but I follow."

So that's what it is. Ryoga was openly staring at Ranma, probably for managing to calm Shan Pu down. Ranma face-palmed. "Honestly, man? You really had to go and challenge an Amazon? Those warrior tribes have crazy laws."

Ryoga waved his arms in panic. "It's not my fault! I got lost and ended up in some weird grove, and she attacked me! What was I supposed to do?"

"It was a sacred grove!" Shan Pu cried. "No man had stepped foot there in five hundred years!"

All Ranma could make of that was something about 'sacred' and 'man,' but he could extrapolated the rest. What a mess. Boy, am I glad it's not me. Plus, Ranma didn't know a lot about the Amazons, but he doubted they'd like his curse much. Shaking his head, he met Shan Pu's eyes. "Do you even know his name?" he asked.

Shan Pu looked down in shame. "No..."

He looked to Ryoga. "Do you know her name?"

Ryoga gave him a look like he was crazy. "Are ya kidding me? She's chased me the whole way around the globe! I can't get rid of her!"

Ranma sighed. Guess it's up to me to play matchmaker. "Shan Pu, this is Ryoga. Ryoga, this is Shan Pu."

They both stared at Ranma – Shan Pu with gratitude, Ryoga with incredulous desperation. "Shampoo? Her name is Shampoo?" Ryoga squawked.

Ranma whacked him upside the head. "Don't be an asshole," he said, ignoring Ryoga's death glare. "Shan. Pu. It ain't that hard. You've managed to get her to make some kinda life debt type thing. Least you could do is be nice to her."

"Why are you taking her side?" Ryoga exclaimed. "She's tryin' to kill me!"

"Marry you," Ranma corrected. "It's just an engagement. They're not so bad, really."

"Ranma!" Ryoga stumbled back forward, clutching his nice new t-shirt. "She can follow me," he whispered. The fear was there, but Ranma knew Ryoga too well not to see the hope and read the subtext: nobody could follow Ryoga. "I can't make her stop."

Laughing a bit, Ranma shook Ryoga off and stepped away, raising his hands. "Sorry, Ryoga. I'm not gonna get in the way of you and true love. Besides, I got enough crazy in my life already." He waved at Shan Pu and laughed a bit. "Good luck!"

Shan Pu laughed and waved back. "Thank you, ah- What is your name?"

"Ranma!"

The Amazon nodded, clearly filing that bit of knowledge away. "When I return here, we will speak more. You speak well. Ryoga-" She was clearly testing out the name. "comes here often. I will be back."

Ranma grinned. Nerima was doing wonders for his social life, he mused. New friends, old friends – everyone seemed to circle back to the Tokyo ward. "Bye, Ryoga! Good luck!"

"RANMA! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS! DON'T LEAVE ME!"

Ahh… Payback. Never gets old.

Akane

Tugging her second sock on, Akane hopped off her bed and out into the hall, finger combing her hair into a manageable semblance of well-groomed. I hate Tuesdays, she thought sleepily, stretching out a yawn. Worst day of the week. Going up to the furo door, she knocked and called, "Ranma, are you done yet? You've been in there since your spar..."

So Akane slept in on Tuesdays instead of sparring. She wasn't Ranma; she didn't feel an obsessive need to train at every hour of every day. He and the panda could monopolize that as much as they wanted to.

"Yeah, yeah, coming!"

The door slammed open, and Akane found herself face to face with Ranma. Ranma was in his girl mode, his towel pulled tight around his chest, cheeks flushed rosy from the cold shower he must've taken. More striking: his red hair was piled atop his head, held in place with his other hand. A loose lock dangled in his face. Ranma stared back at her with a bemused smile.

"H-hey," Akane stammered, blushing.

Ranma shrugged, blushing back. "I kinda forgot my girl uniform back in the room," he mumbled. "Brought the pink shirt in instead. My bad."

"Oh, yeah- yeah. No problem. Do you, uh, want me to get it for you?"

"That'd be great."

Neither of them moved, still to busy staring at each other. Akane's nose twitched – she knew that smell. Giggling breathlessly, she met Ranma's blue eyes and asked, "Did you use my shampoo?"

If Ranma hadn't been embarrassed before, he was now. "Ehe, sorry?" He bit his lip, and Akane shuddered, because her fiance was so cute and she was confused. "I really like the way it smells, and I, uh, I guess I nervous yesterday, but I wanted to do a better job at selling the whole 'girl'thing so Ucchan wouldn't get suspicious, so I decided I should give it a better go, y'know?"

"Sure,"Akane mumbled. "I'm- ah- I'll go and get your clothes, now."

It was a very flustered Akane who walked into the kitchen in a daze five minutes later, absent-mindedly sitting down and downing an entire glass of water. Soun and Genma were deep in a shogi game, but Nabiki and Kasumi both gave her odd looks. "Ranma," she muttered, flushing and digging into her breakfast.

Kasumi's eye twitched and she went back to cooking. Nabiki shot their sister a strange look before turning back to Akane. "You've got it bad for him, don't you?" she whispered with a sly smirk. "Which way, though?"

Akane choked on a bite of rice. She glared furiously at Nabiki, only for her retort to die in her throat when Ranma walked into the kitchen in his new uniform, looking every part the redhead bombshell. Objectively, of course. As a compliment. Akane loved her fiance as a fiance, after all… Ranma flipped his braid over his shoulder and settled down gracefully at the table, shooting the room a blinding smile. "Morning everyone."

"Akane," Nabiki whispered, leaning over. "You're staring."

Akane snapped her mouth shut and looked anywhere but Ranma. I might have a problem…

A shattering sound came from the sink; Kasumi turned around mechanically, a sweet smile pasted on her face as she held a broken porcelain spoon in one hand and half of a dinner plate in the other. "Oh dear," she said, her face the picture of angelic virtue. "It seems I've broken out only spoon. Forgive me, father – I'll go out and replace it now."

Kasumi left dead silence in her wake.

"Uh..." Ranma said smartly. Akane decided the best course of action was to keep eating and pretend nothing had happened.

"Oh, Kasumi does take after her mother," Soun sobbed with tears of joy. Genma stared at Ranma, a look Akane really was starting to hate.

Sighing, Nabiki cleared her breakfast dishes and shook her head. "Troublesome."

Ranma

After the first day at Furinkan, Ranma's deception as Ranko went really well. Too well, almost. It scared Ranma how easy it was to go to school as a girl.

It was easy to go to class and not fall asleep. It was easy to eat lunch with Yuka and Sayuri, who he quickly fell into a familiar rhythm with despite them not knowing who he really was. It was easy to do homework and go lighter in gym class without having to score forty goals or run triple the normal laps every time and to paint in art class and to do groupwork in math. Ranma had never thought of school as something to be enjoyed, but there it was: Ranma Saotome liked school.

As a girl, at least.

There were other things, too. It was easy getting dressed in the morning without having to worry about getting wet, because hot water never found Ranma in the same way cold did. It was easy walking to and from school with Akane – not that that had ever been hard, but Ranma found they argued less, which was nice. Ranma didn't have to think about his body all the time (why had he thought about his body all the time?) and it made everything easier, from the way he held himself to how he fell asleep at night, never afraid some foolish action would set off Akane's temper and spark a fight.

Being a girl, in fact, was so much easier that it scared Ranma. Who woulda thought it? No wonder Pops had him be a man among men all the time! If being a girl was the easy way to go, every martial artist would need to be a guy for a bit if they really wanted to push themselves. No wonder Ukyo disgused herself as a guy for years. For once, it all made perfect sense to Ranma.

Did he breathe a word of that to Akane or anyone else? Hell no. He had a kneejerk negative reaction to the idea of bringing that conversation up, cause he could sense how complicated it would make everything. He hated the looks Pops had been sending him lately. And Akane? Akane would call him a pervert or an asshole again, for saying women had everything easier. He knew she would. It wasn't very progressive or western, or whatever.

Still. Ranma felt great going to school as a girl. He still sparred in boy form and changed back some evenings, but really he was just glad to have a vacation from himself. Why couldn't things be easy for once?

Why? There was no why to it. Ukyo couldn't know, that was all.

There was nothing else.

Period.

But, Ranma grinned, he loved easier.

If there was one downside, it was how stressed everyone around him was. All of a sudden, Akane had dark circles under her eyes and had trouble getting out of bed before him. Kasumi was… weird. Pops was really, really starting to scare Ranma, and he had started treading lightly around his old man even during times he knew the panda wouldn't bother to get off his lazy ass. The only points of normalcy in his life were Akane and Soun, who Ranma was growing to appreciate more and more.

The worst of all was Ukyo.

Ranma didn't know whether to pity or be angry at his oldest friend. Ever since her rooftop tirade on Ranma's first day as a girl, Ukyo had managed to get herself completely isolated at school. Attacking a new kid was an unpopular choice, plus half the grade had promised Ranma they'd protect, well, Ranma, and had taken her little rant personally. As a result, Ukyo had taken to eating lunch alone at the far corner of the roof that was too windy to be nice, at the tender mercies of the gossipers surrounding her. In the girl's locker room, according to Akane (Ranma wasn't ready to cross that bridge yet; he wasn't some kinda peeper!), there had been some light hazing too.

Every day at lunch, Ranma enjoyed his new school life, engaging fully in animated discussion with Akane and Sayuri and Yuka, but out of the corner of his eye he watched Ucchan and wondered.

Finally, on Friday, something gave. Two things, really, though Ranma should have seen the first coming.

"You're Ranma, aren't you?"

Yuka and Sayuri had Ranma cornered by the vending machines with no escape. He pressed his back to the wall nervously. "That's, ah, my nickname? Yes?"

Sayuri snorted. "Idiot."

"You know that's not what I mean, Saotome," Yuka said in a fake-sweet voice, closing in on him. She leaned in close enough for Ranma to feel her breath on his cheek and whispered. "Blink twice if you're really Ranma."

Ranma considered his options, found nothing worth trying, and surrendered. He blinked twice, and Sayuri squealed. "I knew it! I told you," Yuka said triumphantly. When she turned back to Ranma and met his wary eyes, her gaze softened. "Look, Ranma- I'm not gonna pretend to understand your life, or how you got yourself into this one." She waved her hand at him. "But we're you're friends, got it? You can tell us this stuff instead of trying to give us obvious lies. You're a terrible actor."

An unholy light entered Sayuri's eyes. "And now we can take you shopping for real!" she exclaimed, and Ranma shivered.

"Uh, guys, I-"

"C'mon!"

Akane didn't even seem surprised when Yuka and Sayuri dragged a protesting Ranma onto the roof and sat him down at their usual lunch spot. Her unimpressed glower fixated on Ranma. "What did you do this time?"

"What did I do?" Ranma yelped. "I'm being co-opted! I already went shopping this week, alright?!"

"Don't worry, Akane," Yuka whispered. "We'll keep Ranko's secret for you. I'm sure we wouldn't want anything to happen to you two lovebirds, now would we?"

Akane just facepalmed. "Dammit Ranma..."

"Ano… Ranchan?"

Everyone turned to see Ukyo standing behind them, fiddling with her thumbs. Ranma frowned, shaking off Yuka and Sayuri. "Yeah, Ucchan? Whaddya want?"

"I..." Ukyo's cheeks flamed red with embarrassment. She ground her teeth, visibly struggling to spit out her request. Akane's glare was less than gracious, and she scooted across the roof floor, putting herself at Ranma's side. Eyes flickering between the two of them, Ukyo looked away. "I don't wanna sit alone again," she muttered.

Ranma shrugged. In his girl mode, flanked on three sides by his friends, red hair streaming down his shoulders, he felt empowered to talk back to Ukyo in a way he hadn't before. "Why should we let you? Are ya gonna blow up at me again? Call us dykes? I've made my apologies, and I don't got much to offer other than friendship. So if you can get past all that, move on, then yeah. There's a seat for you."

There was a long strangled silence. "...She called you guys dykes?" Yuka asked, incredulous.

"I was angry," Ukyo whispered. "I didn't mean it. I'm sorry."

Akane looked at Ranma, who shrugged. "Fair enough, I guess," she muttered. "I guess that's the optics now."

"Just..." Ukyo looked at Ranma, a little desperate. "You're really Ranma? And you're really a girl? The Ranma I know..."

Being a girl…

It's so much easier.

"Yeah," Ranma said smoothly, grinning a bit. "That's me, Ucchan. Always liked Ranma better than Ranko, though. Family name and all."

"I think I'll just stick with Ranchan," Ukyo shot back, smiling weakly in return. "Gender neutral, and all that."

Sayuri groaned and yanked hard on Ukyo's sleeve – she fell down with a yelp. "Oh, just sit down already. If you've gotta hash this out, you might as well let Yuka and I in on all the gossip."

Ukyo sat down, and the group of four became a group of five. Things were tense for a day, but, slowly, that became the new normal: Ranma in girl mode sitting possessively close to Akame, across from Yuka and Sayuri, with Ukyo on Ranma's other side. There was a deep memory shared between Ukyo and Ranma of childhood friendship, one that slowly developed into a mature friendship as Ukyo let the engagement and her anger slip away.

In the back of his mind, Ranma started to wonder when he was lying and when he was telling the truth.

[A/N] I would say what I usually do about how awesome writing is, but tbh this chapter came from a place of deep, deep procrastination on half a dozen other things I was supposed to get done today lol. Boredom and anxiety breed creativity, I guess? I think this is the fastest back to back chapters since chapter two, or something wild like that.

To answer a few reviewer questions:

Alucard45 – So when I created the premise for the story (the flip-flopping every time Ranma sleeps) two notable factors were different. First, I thought this was gonna be a comedy story. Second, I hadn't actually realized that I was trans (kinda hilarious, really, that this story came first). So I've made the actual switching a lot more subtle, and how I write it has matured a bit with me. Namely, I the author always know how Ranma's feeling, but I think that on a day to day basis, that's not always going to affect Ranma's behavior. Plus, since Ranma has both biological forms, he always has an out for his dysphoria (lucky) so he's not always noticing any discomfort. Mostly the difference is indicated in speech patterns and attitudes.

So, long answer short, I've changed the way I write it to deprioritize the gimick in favor of giving Ranma more realistic feelings.

Rody One-Half – Ukyo's got some issues and let her anger get the better of her. I think there's also a vocabulary issue, for the same reason Akane's only point of reference for Ranma was 'transvestites' which is obviously antiquated. I, of course, was not alive in the late 80s, so I'm working off of pop culture references here too.

A big thank you as always to everyone who reviewed: elusivetruth, Alucard45, Katt1848, Hermione Blackwood, The Keeper of Worlds, KIIIroxasKOD, Rody One-Half, and Siatru! Gender Sleepy now has over 100 reviews!

Cheers and a merry October, friends. Signing out, Allie.