Son Turned Daughter, Chapter 39
An unusual disclaimer: Ranma1/2 is the trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. And Son Turned Daughter was originally written back in 2002 by fanfiction author Tangent, and his characters Megumi, Yasushi, and Ayane have, likewise, been borrowed without permission. Please see the first two chapters of this series under his pen name. This series has been written for noncommercial use only.
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []
This story is not about sex but gender. It is set in a late 1980's that mixes with, from the perspective of our universe, the early 1990's: a time when binary gender identity was the expected norm.
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []
Chapter 39
Ukyo came to, upright but feeling no strain, her weight perfectly balanced. The teen girl she recognized as the referee was holding her up effortlessly by one arm, and declared, "Ukyo Kuonji is the Winner of the Girls-Only Slave-for-a-Day Tournament!"
"Wha…? ...I am?" How? It was all fuzzy for her. The last thing she remembered clearly was the fountain and the girl Ranma gently holding her.
Eyes that hadn't fully opened yet saw that in the ring with them was Ranma. He was on his knees, holding Akane in his arms as he kissed her! He was kissing her as a male would! If she, Ukyo, had won, then her opponent had lost. But Akane was looking like a winner!
Winner? Hadn't she given up her girlhood to spend ten-years preparing avenging herself for Ranma jilting her, leaving her in the dust of the road? Where had that burning desire gone? All she felt now was...desire?
Unaided, Ukyo stood on her own two feet. "Get away from him. You're my slave. You have to do what I say!"
"What?" Akane frowned up at her.
"You did agree to wager!" Megumi yelled at her from among the surrounding crowd.
"You, too," Yasushi reminded her leader. "14 contestants have. Tsuchinoko, the sumo, was disqualified from being a slave."
"That's right!" Ayane said over the speakers placed around the Nerima business district. She was naturally given to gossip and had been really getting into her role as the tournament announcer and making things as sensational as she could. "Ukyo Kuonji has a same-sex harem of 14 slavegirls!"
"Ranma's not a girl!" Taichi said out loudly. Others of the Alpha Male Club just as loudly agreed. Murmurs spread through the crowd. The fat and strong Botan said nothing.
"But he's so cute when a girl!" Hiroshi and Daisuke answered. There were nods even among those that had murmured, like the willowy Itsuke.
"What do you think, Sayuri?" Yuka asked her ponytailed friend.
"He fought as a girl, even though he says he isn't one," she frowned.
"What makes a girl a girl?" Makoto asked, more to herself under her long bangs.
"A curse?" Yukai said, brushing back her long hair.
"Or so he says," said Sayuri, suspiciously.
"I think we should wait before we judge her, him, whichever," Shikako said with her short, thin hair. "He did fight that thing with the wings."
"Wing-san smelled of hot springs," Yuka said.
"Hear me! I have some things to say!" Dr. Tōfū Ono said outside of the ring-shaped griddle. With the easy skill of a practiced martial artist, he leaped over the ropes and onto the heat-resistant mat. Immediately, people were ready to listen to the respected, and unaddled, physician. "It is only because I advised him to remain a girl for two months for the sake of his mental health that Ranma has been a girl in body and brain. If anybody wants to question my advice, I will discuss my remedy later. But know this…" he looked at Taichi and the machismo-ists near him, "What you saw Ranma defeat was a demon. She could return. It is important for public safety that Ranma accept a fate he did not ask for."
"But the demon is after him. Isn't it?" said Taichi.
"The demon was a she?." Sayuri said, taking note of Ranma's male looks.
"Maybe she's a succubus." Hiroshi almost smiled.
"She likes it very rough, then," Daisuke said, not tempted to smile.
"Ranma is a martial artist," Itsuke said.
As the doctor read the crowd, he moved to Ranma. He put his hand on his shoulder. "We have to talk. Later." Only the sixteen-year old noticed the man's eyes glance down at his first erection. (Then Ranma glanced nervously at Akane. Had she noticed? He had been so close to her.)
"Ranma!" Ukyo called for his attention. "Are you going to be a guy or a gal?!"
"I'll be a guy," Ranma said using male Japanese. "I'll be a girl," he said in female Japanese. "Your choice, Ucchan."
"There will be none of that!" a very little old lady with long white hair and dressed in green hopped down onto the mat on a staff longer than herself. Along the way, she used a ceramic cup to toss water on the pigtailed boy. "He's going to be the girl!"
"Ranma!" Akane cried.
Hiroshi and some others, like Botan and Itsuke, cheered.
"Now, why did you do that?" Dr. Tōfū asked gravely, his muscles set to employ his martial arts skills. Ranma saw this, and did the same with hers. Akane, too, became ready.
Cologne chuckled confidently and made no move that could be read as a challenge. "My tribe is matriarchal, so it would be advantageous for all if my future son-in-law…"
"Your WHAT!?" Akane wasn't the only one to cry out on hearing this.
"...were at ease with women. And even better, if he accepted the virtues of womanhood."
"Listen, you!" Ranma broke away from the others and stepped up to Shampoo's great-grandmother. "As soon as I serve my time as a girl and get control over my cursed brain and body, I'm goin' back to bein' a guy as much as I can!"
"Are you?" she chuckled again. "That pig companion of yours wasted the water I brought here from Jusenkyo."
"Pig? Ryō,Burin,Fang?" All Ranma remembered was a large jar filled with water breaking and a wet horror suddenly appearing.
"How about: Kitty-cat."
"C,c,cat!?" Ranma said, beginning to tremble.
"So, anything-went," she smiled craftedly. But became serious again, "I brought the water to punish Shampoo. Without the water, I shall have to punish her this way." In a motion almost too fast to follow, the end of her staff came up and touched a point between Ranma's boobs.
A lightning crack of electricity that shot through her body. It did not remain inside her, but left a tingling on her skin.
"The Full Body Cat's Tongue!" Dr. Tōfū cried out and rushed forward.
"One way or another, you shall remain a girl until you agree to marry Shampoo, Son-in-law!" Cologne cackled as she hopped out of the ring up onto the awning, and up onto the roof of the ceramic shop.
[] [] []
"The goddesses may have other plans," Kasumi told Cologne.
"Shén!" the elder woman cried in surprise. She saw the pure, white aura wings spread out from her.
"Or they may not," Pearl-san said, keeping her wings hidden. "When the time is right for Destiny, then you will hear their song."
Cologne's face took on a crafty look. "Then there is, as yet, nothing to stand against the law of my people from being enforced."
"Japanese law overrides your laws."
"As long as Ranma remains in Japan," Pearl-san said, dipping her ladle in her bamboo pail of water.
"Or if I can appeal to a jurisdiction higher than your goddesses. Say a god or goddess of the Japanese pantheon?"
"We will not recognize the legitimacy of any demons."
"But we will of a kami that is sensei to our goddesses," Pearl-san said, casually splashing her holy water.
"How about a Chinese god that has been accepted as a Japanese god?"
[] [] []
Ranma didn't realize she should have followed, until, too late, the Doc told her what having received a Full Body Cat's Tongue shiatsu meant. "I can't become a guy!? I can't become a guy!?"
The news was passed on further back into the crowd and, then, to the rest of Nerima.
"Oh, here's a development that might change the outcome of the Slave Harem Tournament!" Ayane said into her microphone. "Ranma is now a full-time girl, maybe never to become a guy again! Will this affect the referee's decision?!"
Referee Yasuchi was taking her job seriously. "Ukyo Kuonji is the winner." She turned to her. "Who is going to be your first slave?"
"Slave?" Ukyo repeated from her distraction.
"Dere be no slavery in da domain of da Big Kahuna!" the local noble told them, as he hoisted himself up onto the edge of the ring. He didn't know it was a wrestling-ring-shaped griddle and that it was still hot. He screamed with pain! And fell backward. Another he was there to catch him, but the pained one disappeared as soon as they touched. Hardly any of the witnesses thought they could have seen what they had just seen.
But there was at least one, "No slaves unless they're the slaves of the 'Big Kahuna'," Nabiki commented, petting a certain black cat with a yellow bandana. "Headmaster, what if I can get you a little, black pig for your luau?"
The cat snarled at the idea, but had nothing to say in the matter.
[] [] []
Ranma saw the Doc leap for the rooftops. (Where he met Kasumi. He wouldn't be helping anybody for a while.)
She, then, looked out into the crowd. She saw all sorts of expressions, but the ones that hit her the hardest were those that disapproved of her. She should have kept her secret. But that would not have been honorable. Yeah, like it had been honorable to have been pretending to be a born-girl these past weeks. According to the Doc, though, it was, and is, something beyond honor. Really?
"Come on, Akane. Let's go to the Doc's clinic," Ranma said. She took Akane's arm, noticed her feelings, stopped, frowned, and then let go of her arm. Something was...
"Akane stays with me," Ukyo told them.
"What!? Can't it wait!?" Akane asked, getting angry.
"You're my first slave. I won. I decide when."
"Let me go find out about Ranma!" she tried to plead. "I need to know if he's stuck at always being a girl!"
"You want to know, too, Ucchan, huh?" Ranma said to her.
She did want to know. Here was the one as a boy, male, she had the major league crush on back when they were six. But, but, there was something standing in her way.
She remembered the date she and the redhead had been on. That Ranma had seemed so...high school girly, not the man or even the boy she had dreamed of meeting those times she had succumbed to her femaleness. The jackass was even less of a "man of a man" than she was. Girls flirted with her to the point it had become tiresome.
But more recently, what was the first thing she saw after coming out of her daze? The pigtailed boy being romantically male and kissing Akane! Would he even want to kiss her?! She had a sinking feeling he might not. Not that way. She, Ukyo, wanted Ranma to court his Ucchan! He would have to win her! He couldn't do that while wooing Akane, could he? If he proved not to be man enough for her, then she could let go of him from her heart. Her crush would then be crushed out for good.
"I'll find out," she told him. And she looked at the crowd that was breaking up. "Everybody'll find out.
"Come on, Akane, honey. You have to do what I say for 24 hours."
Akane turned to Ranma to say good-bye. She had the very un-Japanese urge to hug, maybe even to kiss, the shorter girl. Since they had kissed in front of everybody, would people think they would kiss like lovers while girls? They both felt very awkward. Instead, they did and said nothing.
She turned away. And went to Ukyo.
"Aw, man! Ukyo! Is it alright if I go with you guys?" Ranma asked.
"Well…."
"You know...the wager is that it is the slave that has to obey, not anybody else," Nabiki said from outside the ring.
"It'd be rude!" Ranma told her, her eyes not.
"And you can't be rude?" Nabiki smirked. At least until Kikuko and Ryonami came to her with the bad news from the betting they had been handling.
Ranma looked at Ukyo. "I won't be rude. Not to you, Ucch– Ukyo."
[] [] []
Ranma collected the apron and gloves she had borrowed from the Hana's Flowers, and left the ring with them. Akane left with her mallet in her hand, and Ukyo with her spatulas. Anybody remaining among the onlookers cleared the path for them.
A helicopter was already lifting the first of the four giant mirrors from the corner buildings. It was reflecting the sunset.
They walked one short block further and turned left. At the triangular corner of that block was a narrow cafe. Its sign and noren curtain read [Ucchan's].
"How did you get a restaurant of your own?" Akane asked.
"And so soon," Ranma said.
"I told you..." Ukyo said, a bit annoyed, "...on our 'date'."
"You did? Oh, yeah! You're a cousin of Ikuko! Her family owns the 2nd Branch Okonomiyaki restaurant. Uh, we've been there, right?" she asked Akane.
"Yes. This one," Akane reminded her. There had been a celebration party at it after the Tendō Dojo victory over the Chardin School of Fine Dining Martial Arts.
"I also told you this is one of their franchises. Only I'm allowed to rename it because I've traveled around to the best okonomiyaki places in the world! I will demonstrate recipes that are not found on the menus in their other restaurants. Yet." She sounded as proud as any martial artist ranks above the less tested.
The sign said [Closed].
But Ikuko was waiting for them as they entered. "I organized a little party!" Members of the Truce Enforcement now Date Management Club, Akane's and Ranma's friends, as well as some of their lesser classmates were also there. Ikuko, Akiko, Umeko and Emiko; Sayuri, Yuka, Makoto and Shikako; Hiroshi, Daisuke and Itsuke. Botan was from another classroom. And, oh, Gosunkugi was there as well.
"If it's a victory party, it could have been mine!" Akane told her. "I lost on a technicality!"
"Me, too!" Ranma spoke up.
"By not being a girl," Botan said almost too loudly.
"We all know that." But it was Ikuko smiled at. "So think of this as a Welcome party for Ukyo!" A cheer went up for their newest classmate.
"And for a registered boy who looks good in tights!" For that, Hiroshi received a bang on the head from a spatula. It was from Ikuko.
"Pervert," Akane frowned.
"Yeah. That's why I like wearing boys' things better," Ukyo also frowned, but not entirely being honest with herself.
"I only wear girls' clothes at school," Ranma said defensively.
"Akane sure seems to attract people with gender issues," Sayuri muttered. "At least she's only going to be the boy girl's slave for a day."
"It's better than being Kodashi's slave," Shikako said.
"Didn't Ranma say she thought she'd try to make them her slaves permanently?" Makoto asked.
"And what about that Chinese girl?" Yuka asked. Then, "No, would she if she could?"
Ukyo stopped listening to the partygoers. She wanted to treat them like customers. And was sure they soon would be once they had sampled her master chef-skills! "Ikuko, I'm taking charge now!" Ukyo said, heading behind the griddle-counter.
"Handing the business over to you, Cousin," Ikuko said, bowing while presenting her "the official" spatula. That had been part of their deal for the date with Ranma.
Ukyo barely heard the round of applause as she beamed in pride of ownership, even if it was a franchise. After ten years….
Her big moment was spoiled.
Akane saw Ranma looking troubled. She reached out for, boy or girl, her friend. It didn't reassure Ukyo. She said, "Akane, you're going to be my waitress. Ikuko, show her what she has to know."
"What? Am I your slave, too?" she said, not seriously.
"Show her the service sink in the backroom and have her clean the sweat and dirt of the tournament off herself. I don't want the health department shutting us down on my first day!"
"You're the same way," Sayuri told her.
"And Ranma, too!" Yuka chimed in.
Ukyo's eyes snapped around to the redhead. "No. Ranma's a customer and doesn't have to be as clean as us." Giving up, she looked back at Akane, "Come up to the apartment above the restaurant. We'll use its shower."
Akane gave Ranma a wistful look as she left.
[] [] []
"I'm sorry," Ikuko said. "I can't make any okonomiyaki for you. That's Ucchan's domain now. I can serve you some drinks."
The restaurant didn't have a vending machine variety of drinks. Most settled for the standard brands of soda. Sayuri, though, wanted Jolt Cola. When Itsuke heard it was high in caffeine, he ordered one, too. Makoto's sensitive nose preferred green tea.
"I'll have hot water," Ranma said.
"Green tea or oolong?"
"Just hot water."
"Here you go," Ikuko said when she put the tea cup on the counter.
But when Ranma picked it up, cried, "Hot! Hot! Too hot!" And withdrew her hand in pain!
"What?! Sorry! I'll cool it off!" Ikuko picked up the cup. But, "It's hot, but I can hold it."
She did empty some of the water and put it under the tap to cool the water down until, "This is barely hot."
But, "It's still too hot! I, I won't be able to–"
"Call Dr. Tofu! Call an ambulance!" Akane cried out in near panic, rushing into the restaurant. She was in her T-shirt and holding up her beltless dogi pants. "Ukyo is hurt!"
"She did break her ribs!" Ranma forgot about her own problem. Adrenaline must have been masking the pain. "There's nothing that can be done for them but to endure while they heal." A wave of sympathy went through the restaurant.
"It, it's my fault isn't it," Akane said, stricken with guilt now. The Code said she shouldn't hurt the weak.
"Akane…." What could she say? But in the silence of her pondering, there was... "Listen. Do you hear that?"
"Is Ukyo screaming in agony?" Akane asked.
"No. It, it sounds like...singing." Others tried to hear it.
"Singing?" Akane was about to dismiss it as just the street noise of somebody playing a radio, when she thought she recognized the voice as belonging to, "Kasumi?"
"I'm going to check on Ukyo!" Ranma said.
"Akane and we will look at her," Sayuri said, pulling on the shorter girl's arm, halting her.
"She is naked," Akane told the girl.
"But me and–" Ranma saw her panicked look and was able to change it to, "and the girls in gym class see each other undressed in the locker room."
"Yeah. About that. We have to talk," Sayuri said, escorting Akane to the stairs in the backroom.
Yuka followed. "I think Ranma's been a perfect gentleman about that."
"This is part of your training," Shikako said, inviting her to sit with her and Makoto, a girl closest to the redhead's height.
As Ranma did sit, she asked, "How is that like that?"
"Now that people know about you, they're your sparring partners. I guess," Shikaku said. Her fraternal twin had told her that. Wanting to be a sumo didn't automatically get him the respect that established sumo received. But what if Ranma did do as suggested? Would she be throwing her weight around? She knew the martial artist wasn't a lightweight. She had easily defeated her brother, Botan.
"Geez! It was simpler when it was a secret. But...thanks. I have more confidence if I can see something in martial arts terms."
"And if that doesn't work, think of Aoi of XY!" Makoto was pleased she was able to fangirl. "He won people over!"
"I haven't seen him," Ranma said, humoring her. "Or any boy band, I don't think."
"You need to! Come over to my house!"
"We can make it a slumber party!" Shikako said. "I can introduce you to my favorite bands, too."
"Do it and you'll become more girl, Ranma," big Botan said from one of the counter stools.
"Don't you want her to be more girl?" Hiroshi harshly whispered at him. Daisuke nodded in agreement.
"Ukyo's as good as new!" Yuka said, returning, smiling.
"Or she really hadn't broken any ribs," Sayuri said, coming in behind her.
"Where's Akane?" Gosunkugi asked. The guy who rarely said anything.
"Ukyo ordered her to take a shower after hers."
"She shouldn't mind Ranma taking a shower after that?" Shikako asked Ikuko.
"No. I'll leave," Ranma said.
"You'll meet less friendly opponents out there," Shikako said to her.
"And we are your friends," Makoto said, squeezing her hand. "Boy bands."
"Boy bands," Ranma muttered. "XY." Or, really, XX. Ranma had at last had friends. She never had had real friends before. Before she had could become girl. Now, afterwards, her friends were all girls.
Or were they? She now remembered she had had at least two others. (Have?) But, then, Ucchan turned out to be a girl. But what about Ryōga? He wasn't a girl.
No, he was... She didn't want to remember what he was.
"What are you thinking?" Makoto asked.
Before Ranma could answer, Botan asked, "When is Ukyo going to be down and make okonomiyaki?"
Ranma's stomach also grumbled. "That's what I'm thinking now."
"In a few minutes," Ikuko said. "Ukyo wants to begin as soon as she can."
[] [] []
"Here she is, Daddy," Nabiki's voice came from outside.
"Ranma! Tell me it is not so!" the crying Mr. Tendō entered. He rushed up to her, lifted her by her shoulders and held her.
"Man! I wish you wouldn't do this," Ranma groaned. She had never noticed how tall, dark and handsome he was before. And he was so near.
"Tell me you can return to being a man! The future of the School of Anything-goes depends on you marrying Akane!"
"Does he have a marriage contract?" Ukyo said, coming in wearing her uniform of a blue-and-white jacket over black tights. "We've been engaged since we were six."
"The Tendō-Saotome agreement dates before our heirs were born." Mr. Tendō said, pulling Ranma against him. He was now too near. She felt how very masculine he was.
"Is it in writing? Did you give a dowry(!)? Did it have more value than ours!" Ukyo was getting worked up. Her life had been shaped by that one event.
"Uh, well, I'm sure we can find the document."
"Can you?" Nabiki challenged Ukyo.
"C,c,cat," Ranma said, wiggling to get out of the embrace and be further away from the black creature she was holding.
"It just so happens she can," Ikuko said. "Since the First Branch of the Kuonji clan moves about with their mobile restaurants; they trust the Second Branch to keep their paperwork safe. It is a matter of honor. And business."
"As for the dowry, the vending cart that was our livelihood..."
"Akane brings with her the Tendō dojo and all of its property…" Mr. Tendō shot back.
"Can we work out something that will profit both…" Nabiki tried to broker a deal.
Tired of being treated as a pet, the cat twisted free from her arms and landed on the floor.
Ranma had a flashback to the horror in the tournament ring when she lost himself in the neko-ken fear. She panicked and ran. There was no demon to attack, so the only way away from it was probably in the backroom.
But there wasn't. The building had no alley behind it. There were stairs – She dashed up them!
"Akane's naked in the shower up there!" Sayuri cried, rushing after the guy in a girl's body.
"Don't jump to conclusions!" Shikako told her, rushing after her.
"They live in the same house," Makoto said, following her.
"Here I go again," Yuka said, becoming the fourth girl.
"Hey, do you think Akane and Ranma take baths together?" Daisuke asked.
"Not in my apartment!" Ukyo said, but didn't go to find out. If they did, though, she could do something to punish her slaves.
"You'd better not get a nosebleed," Nabiki warned the cat.
[] [] []
The building was narrow and there really was no room for more than one decent-sized apartment. But there were two doors. One turned out to be a storage room for nonperishables. Opening the other door led to a long hallway.
Slam!
By the time he was in the great room, Ranma was beginning to think more clearly.
"Ukyo?" Akane said from what sounded like a smaller room beyond the bedroom.
"It's me, Akane!"
"Ranma!?" she could be heard hurrying into the bedroom. "Is something the matter?" she asked, coming to the doorway. She was still toweling herself dry.
Swing, thump, swing, thump, swing, thump, swing, slam. Their friends were in time to see Ranma looking at the naked Akane.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Sayuri all but accused Ranma.
Shikako pushed her forward so she could see. "There is an explanation, isn't there?"
Makoto squeezed by her taller friend. "Ranma uses the girls' locker room."
Yuka had to jump to look over everybody in front. "But it doesn't have showers."
With everybody talking about her being naked, Akane had covered herself with the bath towel.
"I didn't mean to be here! It's, it's because…." The truth could help her to recover her honor, but it would mean definitively revealing her weakness.
Akane understood. She dropped the towel. "It's okay. We're all girls."
"Ranma's a boy!" Sayuri reminded her.
"A boy who kissed you," Yuka giggled.
Ranma was slow to remember she shouldn't be looking at a naked girl for too long. But where should she look? The only other people were also girls. At least they were wearing clothes.
"I've lived with Ranma for over two weeks. We're good friends. I trust...her. And him." She tried not to remember the treatments Ranma had been taking to become sexually awake. That was the person before today's kiss she knew best.
"See!" Shikako said with relief.
"Didn't you say Ranma has been a gentleman, Yuka?" Makoto prompted her.
"Well…," Yuka turned to her best friend Sayuri. "Can a gentleman be a lady?"
"A boyfriend can't. Sooner or later their male side comes out."
"Boyfriends are only gentlemen until you become a girlfriend?" Yuka hadn't had much experience in dating. None of the Furinkan students had because of the Lysistrata Rule the school had been under for three years.
"There's no chance for that, as long as Ranma's stuck being a girl!" Makoto reminded them.
"But Ranma wants to think like a guy!" Sayuri reminded her.
"Ranma doesn't know how to think like a guy!" Akane defended. Then she realized what she had said. "Oh, Ranma! I'm sorry!"
Truth. Truth, she told herself. She may not have become friends with Akane if she hadn't told her the truth. She wanted these girls to be – to remain – her friends. "The Doc, Dr. Tōfū, said I need to know how my girl-brain works." Her shoulders slumped. "Only, now I find out I really don't even know how a guy thinks. All I know is how a martial artist thinks."
"What does that mean?" Sayuri challenged.
"It means my stinkin', idiot old man sabotaged me sexually!" the redhead had switched into male Japanese. "I wasn't interested in girls and didn't even think I should be!"
"Oh, Ranma," Makoto pushed past the others to be closer to the redhead.
"Me, too," Shikako said, joining her. She briefly hugged her.
"Sayuri?" Yuka asked, wanting to lend her support, too.
"You're interested in girls, now: You kissed Akane!"
"As a guy," Ranma admitted.
"And as a girl?!"
Ranma looked at Akane apologetically. She saw Akane bend down and picked up the towel and covered herself. She waited, before saying, "The truth is…," she took a deep breath. "I don't know. I want to be. I remember the guy me wanted you, Akane. But not the girl-brain. Not yet."
"Yet?" Shikako repeated.
"Girl-brain?" Sayuri repeated, processing this new information.
"Ranma likes guys!" Yuka squealed.
"No! I can't!" Ranma wanted to be turned off by the idea. But her fresh feelings for Mr. Tendō were triggered.
"If you like guys, you like guys. Right?" Makoto said to her.
"And you do it as a girl!" Yuka said. "So Ranma's not a pervert."
"Really?" Sayuri asked.
"Like is like!" Shikako told her. "You like too much caffeine."
"And natto!" Yuka laughed briefly.
"That's not the–"
Akane saw where this was going and frowned. "Out! I have to find something to wear so I can serve my time as a, um, slave."
"I can go back home and get some clothes!" Ranma volunteered. "If I jump from rooftops, then…"
"Oh, good, you are here," Kasumi said, entering the now crowded apartment. "Akane, Ranma, I brought you both a change of clothes." She had two bags of neatly folded clothes.
"That's Kasumi being Kasumi," both Yuka and Makoto said.
Actually, Kasumi was feeling unhappy about what Destiny was doing to them all, though she didn't understand what its plan was. What if there was no plan? Was it just ways of exploring different realities? Did the gods care? Well, she cared!
[] [] []
The others, girls and boys, were about to be served okonomiyaki when Akane came down into the restaurant, not knowing her dad and other sister had been ordered out of the restaurant. She was wearing an old but attractive dress she wore in the house when she had no chores to do. And over it was one of Kasumi's aprons. "Okay, I'm ready," she told Ukyo.
"It's 9:11 PM. You're my slave for the next 24 hours."
"Hey! I've been your temporary 'slave' since before sunset!"
"And you've really done nothing but follow me and take a shower - with the water I'm paying for! A Mistress expects actual work from her slave. You're going to be my waitress and sous chef!"
"Chef(!)?" Makoto looked at Shikako.
"Uh, Akane barely gets passing grades in home ec," Sayuri told Ukyo.
"And she's worse when she stresses," Yuka added. "No offense, Akane."
"Then, it's about time she –"
There was a scream from the apartment above. "What's happening?!"
"Ranma screamed like a girl!" Itsuke said.
There was another scream.
"I think she's trying to take a hot shower," Ikuko said. "She's become overly sensitive to hot water."
And, stubbornly, another try!
"The Cat Tongue?" Akane didn't remember the details, but Dr. Tofu said because of that, Ranma wouldn't be able to use hot water to change back into his guy-self.
"I'll go check on Ranma," Ukyo said, leaving the area behind the counter. "You serve!"
Akane didn't like it, but she did. Bringing the okonomiyakis to her classmates, she said, "How late is she going to be open.? It's a school night!"
"It's Golden Week!" Yuka said.
"Not at Furinkan," Makoto reminded her.
"Nabiki took bets on if she could keep the Headcase from having any classes," Sayuri said.
"Bribes," Itsuke said.
"This is a party, remember? Let's!" Shikako said. "Kanpai!"
"Kanpai!" the others said, raising their drinks, too.
[] [] []
"The water's not very hot at all, Ranma." Kasumi's hand was under the shower stream.
"But it's hot to me! Scalding!" the nude girl claimed, though she didn't look even red. "If I can't stand enough heat for me to change, I'm gonna be a girl maybe forever!
"Worse! I may like–"
"What is this!?" Ukyo yelled on seeing them. Hadn't she heard Ranma could marry any of the Tendōs? "Does Ranma flash everybody at your place?!"
"Only when a girl," Kasumi reassured her.
"I don't flash! How else am I supposed to shower!?" the redhead insisted, leaning forward, her fists thrust down.
"Shower!? Turn the water off! It's costing me money!"
While Kasumi did, she noticed, "You're alright with seeing the girl Ranma nude, too, I see, Ukyo."
"It's not what I'm seeing, but what he's seeing - in his guy-mind!" Right now, only Ranma was naked, but she had heard the girls downstairs whispering something about Akane, her towel and Ranma.
"From what I've been told and read from the Doctor's medical books, Ranma may well be a girl. The body of a girl can only have a girl's brain. Without a male body, what remains of Ranma's manliness may be just what remains in her memories."
Ukyo didn't want to hear that. (The redhead couldn't be the Ranchan of her rare fantasies?) But there was something about this woman that commanded the respect of hearing her senpai out.
Kasumi had another thought. "Though, according to Chinese medicine, nothing is wholly female or male, yin or yang. Every brain would then have something in it that is different from their stereotypical gender."
"Uh?" Did that mean something in Ranma that could make her like girls like a guy does?
"Even a girl, I can be a guy?" What he had gained just that day – only to immediately lose! –: Was that what made a guy a true guy?! "Yin and yang? That's basic to martial arts! It's something I understand!" A notion rose up in the back of Ranma's mind. "Where're the clothes you brought, Kasumi?! There may be a way to be manly!"
"There is?" Ukyo said as the nude redhead brushed by her.
There, near the bed, was the bag Ranma was looking for. But when she looked in, she was disappointed. "This is what you brought?!" It was her black belt, martial arts uniform. "My dogi?!"
"You could put on your kung fu outfit again. Though it is rather...pungent," Kasumi noted.
"Like you still are," Ukyo commented.
"No, I need to wear…." Ranma stopped and thought for a moment. "Or maybe I don't need to wear…." Shaking her head, she thought better of it. "Ukyo...Ucchan, can I have a T-shirt?"
"Why should I give you one?" she frowned.
"For friendship?" Kasumi suggested.
Groaning, Ukyo didn't argue, but gave in. Grumbling, Ucchan went to the drawer where she kept them to wear over her sarashi breast wrap and under her boys' school uniforms.
Ranma slipped into the plain, white T-shirt. She pulled it down to her thighs. It didn't cover much of them. She remembered girls wearing skirts just as short, but she remembered, too, the last time she had gone without anything underneath down there. "Can I get some panties?"
"What!? I don't wear panties! And neither should you!" Ukyo frowned at the once-boy now in the thin "mini".
"Ranma has worn panties ever since he's been dedicated to girl training," Kasumi told her. It was the trauma of being caught without them that had motivated him to train.
"I wear boxer-like panties!" she defended herself. But admitted, mumbling, "But not during my period."
"I wear fundoshi loin cloth," Ukyo said.
Blushing, embarrassed already, Ranma forced herself to say, "You don't have any makeup, I guess?"
Ukyo crossed her arms. "That's gonna make you manly? Jackass."
"Yes!" She turned to "Kasumi, how long can it be before you can get me makeup?!"
"But you wouldn't know what to do with it. Remember when you went on your date to Kuno's?"
"Kuno? The Headmaster?"
"His son! And I didn't date him! I infiltrated his castle! Me and Akane!"
"And Shampoo," Kasumi filled in what was missing.
"So it wasn't a threesome," Ukyo said, thinking worse.
"No–
"Shampoo!" Ranma did remember something important! "That's it!" Now she had to remember the how. "What was it? I should know: I never forget a technique! What is it…."
A technique wasn't gained by words, but by actions. She put her fingers up to her face and, "Pinch your cheeks. Um,mwah,...Pout your lips. Hhmm...Flair your nostrils, and Keep your eyes wide." With each phase of body awareness, her battle aura shifted and faceted, morphing what those outside saw of her "Have confidence. I'm competing with other girls! It's a battle of beauty! And Ranma Saotome never loses!"
Ukyo's mouth nearly dropped open as she found herself gazing at a girl who was becoming flawless! All her imperfections were blurred and softened without a foundation. Her cheeks took on a blush without rouge. Her lips became smaller and thicker and dewy without gloss. Her nostrils and pupils became as dilated as somebody who was pleasantly excited. Her tattooed eyelids came to resemble an exquisite eyeshadow. And her hair was now lustrous.
Even her already generous figure became more curvy and perky. It was enough to make even the sarashi-bound tomboy jealous.
"How do I look?" the incredibly cute redhead asked, posing as she turned around for them to assess all of her.
Along the way, she finally noticed the full-length mirror. Looking into it over her shoulder, she pushed out her hip and followed the swells of her butt cheeks. The T-shirt molded itself to the hemispheres and went deeper between them than was probably natural. Ranma knew she looked good...for a girl.
"I've never seen you look better as a girl, Ranma," Kasumi admitted. "But you're not sexy. And I don't recommend..."
"I'm not sexy!? I'll show you!" This was a challenge! Of her ability to master a technique. What sexy was, though, Ranma only had vague notions. But being this great looking had to be all that was important for her idea to work!
Giggling despite herself, she hurried out of the bedroom.
[] [] []
"Yoo hoo, guys!" Ranma jumped from halfway up the stairs, only thinking to hold the hem of the T-shirt down when it was being blown up and away from her thighs. It was wasted because those in the restaurant couldn't yet see her. But she used her momentum to hurry herself in, prancing like a gymnast all the way.
"What do you think(!)?" she invited more than questioned, "posing" while slowing.
Hiroshi, Daisuke, Itsuke, and even Botan on a counter stool, forgot what they were doing to stare at the petite yet voluptuous mega-cutie. None of them remembered that Ranma was supposed to really be a guy. And at the moment, none of them would have cared. Meanwhile, Gosunkugi was still looking at Akane.
"Am I sexy?(!)" She went to the guys' table and leaned on it. Catching the bottom of the T-shirt between the table and her lower body, and arching her back, she pushed her boobs upwards enough for the outlines of her nipples to show.
"Ranma! Where's your feminine modesty?!" Akane warned.
"Oops!" And the pigtailed girl reached around to tug the hem down past her backside.
That action was the trigger: Male libido started radiating out from the boys!
"Suckers! Now, make me manly!" And Ranma switched techniques. If she could take on Kodachi when she drained the femininity of those at that Shibuya fashion store, and had himself used the reservoir of masculinity around him to be alpha-manly in woman's lingerie, she could certainly collect the lust of these horndogs!
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []
This is Ranma: Do you think things will go as expected? I hope you'll be surprised, too.
Note that Ukyo isn't acting like a wannabe bride because Ranma hasn't yet given her enough of a hope. Yet.
But, then, I feel her registered-as-a-male, tomboy-premise was wasted in the famous "Ranma 1/2".
A reminder: Shikako and Makoto were two of Akane's friends seen in the early episodes of "Ranma 1/2". I want them to have a larger role in these stories.
Hiroshi and Daisuke were two of Ranma's guy regulars. Itsuke and Botan are the names I'm giving to two other Furinken students. Will they and Gosunkugi get larger roles? Like everybody else, the plot developments will decide.