- Chapter 12: Foodie Experimentation -

Akane walked into Okonomiyaki Ucchan's and looked around the place. It wasn't packed, but her friend was clearly doing well today. The counter had a few open spots, but given it was a bit late in the afternoon that wasn't too bad. The customers were also a bit older, and a few were openly staring as the currently Okonomiyaki batter slime made quick work of their orders.

Akane then walked over to the counter, and sat down heavily with a grunt. "I'm done with being diluted," she complained to the notable confusion of the customers.

"The panda is still doing water training?" Ukyo questioned with a deft flick of a spatula. "Its been days now, 'kane." Days of Ranma being forced to go over every possible way to incorporate water into a fight by his father. Akane would almost say she had seen his redhead form more than the last time he ended up locked.

"And after days of learning just why water annoys both Muk and Alcremie I am done trying to work around it," Akane continued to complain. "Genma is still worried about how he didn't even think of trying to train around water," she added a bit more seriously. "I don't think I've seen him like this before, and Ranma seems worried too."

"Great, now you have me imagining how too much water would wreck my mix," Ukyo grumbled with a cringe and slung a few finished Okonomiyaki to customers.

Further discussion was interrupted by the much louder entry of Sayuri and Yuka. "There she is," Sayuri declared as soon as she spotted Akane, and Yuka seemed to be following with much less enthusiasm. "Akane, I have a Plan."

"She ran out of new food carts to try before she ran out of spending money," Yuka specified without actually clarifying what this 'Plan' was.

"I decided to go over to a shrine to get these," Sayuri explained better, and got out a small box of ofuda. "I might have implied you were a yokai, and got some strange looks, but it should work."

Akane frowned at the box, and with a bit of annoyance melted into icing. She had wanted to have a human afternoon, but she probably needed her Fairy senses for this whatever it was. "Oh, those are actually powered," she noted with a bit of concern. "What exactly did you ask for?"

"And did you at least go to a shrine that actually deals with whatever you asked?" Ukyo said with her own dubious look at the box.

"They said that it should work to let us try out food forms without it sticking to see what one we actually like," Sayuri said dismissively. "Well, okay they said it would let me try 'a change in form', and made it sound like a dumb plan, but Ranma just got a cure and I want to be ahead of whatever mess that is going to cause."

"Which is the only reason I'm going along with this," Yuka sighed and looked at Akane with clear worry. "He made it through two days without turning into a girl, even dodged some water some guys tried to throw at him. Nerima isn't a place where we get that kind of luck, and I'm terrified of what's coming next to make up for that." Akane thought that maybe he managed at school, but that was the only place he managed that lately.

"I can see that, but maybe we can wait until after I close?" Ukyo requested seriously with a motion to the now also somewhat worried customers.


"Okay, you two are still on this, so what is your idea?" Ukyo demanded about an hour later. Akane had gone back to human to wait, so she had to melt to Alcremie again, and she was still annoyed at having to go slime when she didn't want to.

"We use these to try out food forms so we know what we actually like in case we have to go with that," Sayuri specified, perhaps a bit maniacally. "That way we are ready to go when it happens."

"If this goes wrong I want to give Sayuri support," Yuka said dryly. "Also to tell her 'told you so' forever."

"Okay, alright, first," Akane started with a grumble. "This is a dumb plan. We probably don't need to worry about that happening unless something makes it happen, and this is more likely to make it happen somehow." Neither of her human friends changed expression. "Second, whoever made these for you put enough power into them that it is a plan that should work."

"How much did you win from Nabiki?" Ukyo asked and moved closer to the box. "I can't tell that much, you are after something too strong for me to pull off, but I know that couldn't be cheap."

"I may have implied that you would do it to me any time now and I wanted to make it safer," Sayuri admitted.

"Are you absolutely sure you're fine with this going wrong, Yuka?" Akane asked to try and get one of them out of this mess.

"Forever, Akane. The rest of our lives and beyond," Yuka said, and now Akane realized this was an attempt to stop the other girl too. "If we go through with this and it goes wrong I will hold this over her forever. She owes me free whatever she ends up. Forever."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine with that," Sayuri said blandly. "If we end up food I'm willing to share."

"At least charge people who aren't your friends," Ukyo grumbled and moved away again. "So, where do these things go then?"

"... I hoped that Akane knew that," Sayuri admitted. "I think it just goes around the room?"

Akane sighed and, careful not to actually touch them, looked at the ofuda closely. "Okay, Ukyo, can we use the restaurant for this?" she asked as she tried to work out the mystical nature of the slips of empowered paper. "Because between Kasumi not liking Fairy stuff and Genma's training I think the Dojo isn't an option. If I did want to try and use these things it will have to be one of our places, and I don't think Betty has a house."

"Is it going to mess with my customers, 'kane?" the other food slime asked darkly.

"This shouldn't, it is just for these two. I don't think it could affect anyone else," Akane specified. "Well, maybe any of our other friends, but it should also need me to actually do something to them. These are just focusing what I could possibly do a bit more, I think." She frowned at the items. "At least that is what it feels like it is doing to the kind of Deals I can make. I could probably tell more if we put them up, but then we would have to use them or waste them."

"Fine, but if it does mess with my business then I will have the two of you using whatever you end up as to help out around here to make up for that," Ukyo threatened with an angry gurgle.

"I was about to object to the idea we'd have to end up as something if stuff went wrong, but then I realized it probably wouldn't really have gone wrong if it didn't happen to us too," Sayuri admitted. "So, do I just put them up around the room then?"

"You and Yuka," Akane specified with a sigh. "That way you both set up the protection. Then we can talk Deals." Yuka grumbled a bit at that, but the little slips of paper were stuck to the walls. Without anything to make them sticky, which apparently was what it took to make Sayuri start looking uneasy about what she did.

The feeling in the room changed a lot as they worked. On one hand it became a lot easier to make Deals to change people, but on the other it was getting harder to make Deals that would stick firmly. The result was a muddy feeling that had her almost wanting to turn into a Muk to escape it, and Ukyo didn't look like she was enjoying it either. However, it did seem to be doing exactly what it was meant to do, as the specification of 'enjoyed' and 'temporary' was now firmly required for Deals in the building.

"Akane, this is making it so I might be able to change them," Ukyo cautioned, and Akane rippled a bit at how this was serious enough to justify dropping her nickname.

"Yeah. Sayuri, what shrine did you go to?" Akane asked with concern. Because the muddy feeling could be hiding other problems at this point.

"Um, a good one," Sayuri said distractedly, and worryingly Yuka did not seem to find any issue with that not-answer.

"She can't say what shrine, can she?" Ukyo asked a long quiet moment later as the other two seemed to blindly put up the slips in a clear pattern.

"I doubt she paid enough for those ofuda to be able to," Akane agreed with another sigh. "What the heck did she tell them I was like?"

"Alright, that's enough of them," Sayuri declared with about half the box still filled. Then blinked and seemed to realize something was wrong. "How did I know how many to use?"

"Last chance to back out," Akane complained. Yuka looked even less certain, but Sayuri just crossed her arms. "So, the Deal I'm going to offer is: You try out a bunch of forms to see if we can find one that you will want if we end up needing to give you another form, I stop getting bugged about this until we actually need to give you another form." It had honestly gotten annoying to hear about it every day at lunch, and if this could stop that then she would take it.

"Deal," Sayuri declared strongly, with a quieter agreement from Yuka afterwards.


"Taiyaki first?" Akane had to ask with disbelief a few minutes later when she finally got a first option out of the pair.

"Why taiyaki at all?" Ukyo quickly added with unease. "Do you want to be fish shaped for a reason?"

"Hey! I like taiyaki," Sayuri complained about that reaction. "I want to be stuff I like."

"Do I have to try all of them?" Yuka admitted. "Because I have spent too long finding out what stuff Sayuri likes that I don't for this." Yuka then gave a dark look to Sayuri. "And I don't think we found much she didn't like."

"Just let me try this one first. I want to see if being a fake fish is interesting," Sayuri huffed, and Akane just let it happen. The result was the human quickly shrinking into a still sizable fish shaped cake that looked around the room with consideration. "Not bad," Sayuri said, revealing red bean paste as her fishy mouth opened.

"Gah! Why did I change too?" Yuka, who was a similar looking fish now, yelled. "Oh no, I don't have any arms!" The taiyaki monster complained.

"It's not quite what I want," Sayuri said without much concern for Yuka's panic. The girls then quickly changed back to human before Akane had to do anything.

"How about mochi?" Yuka suggested tiredly after a long moment where Akane just considered what happened. "That seems simple enough."

"It looks like both of you do have to change," Ukyo pointed out, and Akane cringed a bit at that. The two probably weren't going to find the same form they both liked. "Are you sure you-" Ukyo cut off. "Oh, crap."

"We still have about half a box," Akane reassured everyone. "As long as we find something for each of you that sort of works we can probably stop before we find a perfect one." They could not, however, stop before they found at least something that sort of worked.

"Fine, I'll try mochi," Sayuri admitted, as if that was the big problem there. "But we're trying cotton candy after that."


Four hours, and one upset phone call from Kasumi, later Akane was about done with Sayuri as she watched two pocky-pines turn back into humans. This latest form was an interesting pile of pocky sticks in the shape of a good sized spiky mammal. "We have tried everything. We tried every kind of sugar I've heard of, and some I had not heard about before. We tried fish, we tried fried chicken, we tried four different rice options, ice cream, fruit in a variety of forms, and every snack food that doesn't fit as any of those," Akane listed tiredly. "I even think Yuka is about to kill you."

"I am," Yuka quickly and harshly agreed while Ukyo glared at the piles of crumbs and such that had fallen off the two girls during all of this. "I was fine with mochi, mochi will work for me, the rest of this has just been torment!"

"But none of them are the right one," Sayuri said with a whine that honestly seemed to be mostly from being tired. "Most of them have been close, but none are quite right."

"Do you actually want to make food for people, or just eat stuff?" Ukyo darkly questioned clearly also done with the 'Plan'. "And if you want that why not just go with being a Muk instead of food?"

Akane blinked at the idea, which technically was an option but not what she expected. "Wait, can we?" Sayuri questioned with an eager tone, while Yuka groaned loudly.

"Last one for the night," Akane declared. "You liked enough of the rest to be alright, so we see about making you into a Muk, and then we all go home."

Both girls changed one last time, now melting down into two piles of fluid goo that for the first time Akane could smell without being a Muk herself. Both were a generic purple toxin, and were quite unpleasant to smell in Akane's Alcremie form.

"Sayuri, I think I hate you, this is terrible," Yuka said with a grumpy gurgle. "This is just too thin. Why can't you just handle something thicker?" Sayuri had in fact hated mochi, a rare situation for the night.

"Yuka, this one's the closest yet," Sayuri said and then groaned and spread out quite a way, drawing more angry looks from Ukyo. "It still isn't quite right, but definitely the closest."

"Fine, you got a closer one, now let's go home," Akane demanded as they once again changed back to humans.

"And be ready to come back tomorrow after school to help me clean the place," Ukyo said with a long look at what had happened to her floor.


The next day at school wasn't something Akane was really up for after barely getting sleep after all of that mess. Especially since she still wanted to be human for a while too.

"So, you are doing a bit better as a human too," Ranma said a bit tiredly himself. "I'm glad you put Kuno into the wall first, and really hope pops stops making me stay up late too."

"I wouldn't have been up late if Sayuri..." Akane started as they made it to the classroom, a bit before they needed to for once, but trailed off as she spotted the few others in the room staring at Yuka's seat. Yuka's seat which had a familiar looking sort of rabbit shaped glob of mochi sitting in it half asleep. "Yuka?"

"Ugh, Akane?" the mochi blob questioned. "You came to school too? I didn't really get any sleep, but I just didn't want to skip." Yuka turned to face them, long drooping 'ears' flopping a bit as she moved.

"I thought you said they changed back," Ranma whispered quickly as Akane continued to her desk.

"What happened?" she asked Yuka as she tried to work out how one of them ended up back in one of the temporary forms.

"Nightmares I guess," Yuka replied, which didn't seem to have much to do with the topic. "I kept dreaming I was a moon rabbit, but I was doing badly at making mochi. So the other moon rabbits said I would be better off made into mochi instead, and put me in the bucket, and mashed me down into mochi. Every time I tried to get to sleep again it was the same dream."

The whole class just sort of stared at her for a moment while they contemplated that. "So, did ya actually go to the moon ta get turned into mochi then?" Ranma asked aloud.

"Huh? What do you..." Yuka asked and seemed to finally notice that she was a lump of well mashed food. "Ugh," Yuka groaned again and then let her face fall onto her table where it squished flat.

"Akane, why is Yuka made of mochi again?" Ukyo asked from the doorway.

"I don't know," Yuka muttered from her desk. "I didn't even notice somehow. I made it to school... Wait, why didn't any of the humans say anything?"

"I'm trying to stay human today, Yuka," Akane grumbled and sat down. "And now we need to work out what happened here."

The smell was the first thing that hit her. It was a mixed up smell Akane had encountered at the very end of the attempts when she changed back into a human for the night. Not exactly bad in any one way, but the mixture of foods and a bit of toxic materials that made something that she would never really forget.

The Muk that entered the room, and Akane was sure this was a Muk rather than a more 'typical' food creature, was somewhat clear with a few light colors mixed in, and seemed to be made mostly out of sugar. Floating inside the semi-clear mass was a bunch of snacks and foods that were in various states of being dissolved.

"Morning," Sayuri said with a gurgle as the Muk left behind a very unappetizing trail of various food crumbs and Akane suspected a bit of toxin. "Anyone else have trouble sleeping?"

"Sayuri, what are you?" Yuka asked dully.

"'What' am I?" the sugar-Muk asked and looked at herself. "I... Well I'm feeling alright so I think I'm fine. Just tired." Sayuri then rather forcefully surged to her own desk.

Akane simply groaned at this new literal mess, and found herself unamused when the teacher arrived and looked at her like it was somehow her fault that there was a sticky trail to Sayuri's desk and two new food monsters.


"Humans!" Sayuri declared strongly once they finally reached lunch time. The new Muk had done such a bad job of dealing with a poor smell that Akane had turned into a Muk too just to avoid it, and even then she still found herself unhappy with the odor. The rest of the class had been even less happy and had made that clear.

"So, are you two making a point of some kind, or are you actually stuck like that?" Ukyo questioned darkly, human while setting up the grittle for the first time in a while. Mostly to avoid contamination from the new food monsters.

"Stuck?" Yuka asked with an unhappy frown down at the grass getting stuck in the mochi rabbit's body.

"As food slime creatures," Akane said, unhappy herself. "Which you shouldn't be at all because that was. not. the. Deal." She then realized she had shifted to Alcremie at some point during that statement. Sayuri didn't meet her eyes, and Yuka seemed to have found the ground incredibly interesting. "So, do the two of you happen to have any idea why you're changed now?"

"I might have actually said you had already threatened to change me," Sayuri nervously admitted. "And that I needed the ofuda to make sure I got a good change."

"It seemed like a better idea at the time," Yuka said. "But right now it sounds a whole lot dumber to mess with a Deal like that."

"Yeah, I think I really messed with that Deal," Sayuri admitted as the Muk idly seemed to be eating grass. "I didn't get what that meant before."

"Hmph, well... wait. Sayuri, you can sense Deals too?" Akane had to ask, because she couldn't as a Muk.

"Yeah, why?" the sugar-Muk questioned, now moving onto some small twigs from a nearby tree as a meal.

"Can we maybe focus on the turning into humans part instead?" Ukyo reminded them. "Because they need to go back to human at some point. If only so Sayuri doesn't end up eating her textbooks."

"Fair enough," the sugar-Muk admitted around a rock but still seemed determined to sample everything. "I don't know how to turn human," Sayuri added with a sigh.

"I think if I tried right now I might just end up a moon rabbit instead of one," Yuka agreed while giving Sayuri a disgusted look. The mochi rabbit didn't even look like she was happy with being on the ground. "Do you know if we could maybe get special clothes or something until we work that out?"

"We're going to see Alakazam as soon as we can," Akane grumbled.


[Author's Notes]
Well, this one changed theme between when I first planned ahead for it, and then changed more when I realized there was only some food changes I actually was interested in writing the change for directly, but that's just how writing works sometimes.
Still debating on if this will go directly into my next planned plot or if it will have other stuff afterward when I continue from here.
... just realized I put something of a cliffhanger in the story I didn't want to have those, but I like this cutoff better for what is planned next.