Son Turned Daughter, Chapter 49
An unusual disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 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. Please see the first two chapters of this series under his pen name. This series has been written for noncommercial use only.
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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 unquestioned norm. Ranma dys-ease with having a female brain-body is a reflection of those born with the brain-body of a gender other than the one their chemistry says they actually are.
Note: In an effort to show the problem Ranma is having with gender identity, the different pronouns ('her', 'she', 'he', 'him', 'his') are used to indicate which is the more relevant at the time. 'S/he' indicates the increased ambiguity or conflict. Japanese, though, has no gender distinction in its pronouns. That is in the grammar and words used.
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Chapter 49
While Akane and Ranma argued with his father, debated with each other, and asked the advice of the doctor over whether or not they should go to the love hotel…
Ukyo was still on the phone with Nabiki Tendō . "...Okay, I get it: This Kodachi wanted to have us be her permanent slaves. So, she put a bunch of loopholes in the tournament contract. Even if we graduated past our Day-as-a-Slave time, she could've always challenged us, loser having to be slave for yet another so-called 'day'."
"You would have been her sparring targets in perpetuity; a slave again if you lost again."
"But she didn't win: I won. I'm the "slave master" and I don't got to do any of that."
"One, you, Ukyo Kuonji, are a businesswoman. You know how important contracts are to keep if you want the trust of other businesses. Two, you are a martial artist. You accepted the conditions of the challenge. Your reputation among the community is at stake. Do you want to be known as a welcher?"
"Three!" Shampoo chimed in. "Great-grandmother no allow! Is bad for karma: chi flow."
"This has nothing to do with you Women Heroes! Only me and Ranma are to be honorary amazons!" Oh, right, and Akane.
"Is no true: All in tournament is Womans Hero candidate!"
"See?" Nabiki said to the naive(?) okonomiyaki vendor. "Shampoo also wants you and the Fourteen permanent slaves."
"No, Shampoo no want. Elder of Womans Hero, Great-grandmother, want!"
Ukyo blanched. She knew from her brief time with the old woman at the Bathhouse Cafe, she didn't really stand a chance against her in battle, physically or intellectually. Where were the elderly's senility when you needed it?!
"I believe there is a loophole to get around Shampoo's granny, too," Nabiki said.
"Okay. I'm listening. As if I had a choice. But tell me, why are you so interested in helping us?"
"Let me read this subclause: To ensure the proper observance of the conditions of this contract, Nabiki Tendō on her signing will ever be a slave for every day before and during the All-Girl Slave-for-a-Day Tournament.
"And with the loopholes: Afterwards, too."
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Back in his tall, muscular body and usual kung fu-style outfit, Ranma was rooftop hopping in the night with sensuous Akane draped over one of his broad shoulders in a Fireman Carry. It could have been a Princess Carry if he had immediately associated that romance. But her safety was his number one concern for his best friend and, uh, "love interest" (that's what both of the adults had called her…and him).
"Ranma, put me down!" Akane yelled. But not too loudly. "Dr. Tōfū didn't think this was a good idea! It was your idiot dad's after all!"
"I'm, I'm sorry, Akane. Really! But after what happened at Ukyo's…." Orgy wasn't in his vocabulary, but he understood that was what could have happened. And still could. His manhood wanted to stiffen more than it was at the memory. But the Doc's Book of Changes acupuncture treatment had tamed it. For now. He was warned it wouldn't last. For how long? Days? A day? Hours? It was like his remaining a man. It wasn't going to last. Soon he was going to be back to being a horny girl.
A girl? S/he could go straight into dying to be a sexually knowledgeable woman! A virgin no longer!
He had to know what it was like to be a man first! "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, or he ain't a man! Macho manliness over all else!"
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"You, you're a slave, too?!" Wait a minute! "You're not one of my slaves, are you!?"
"No. You only have fourteen slaves."
"Fourteen's more than enough." What a relief! The real problem with slaves was not their legality. Of course she could be charged with violating human rights. But she was pretty sure there were outs. Like it was voluntary on the tournament's martial artists parts. Sure, they hadn't signed the contract, but they had agreed to its terms. Now that she thought of it, the flyers had said, in fine print, that the details of what they were agreeing to honor were to be found at the MC's table next to the fighting ring. It was "legally" binding. IF the courts agreed it was. In the future. After a length, expensive trial. Trials!
The real issue was liability! If the law recognized her, even temporarily, as being their slave master, she would be responsible for them. She, who had had to be responsible only for herself. SHE would have to pay for any damage they caused, the expenses they incurred. It was her reputation as a responsible businesswoman that would suffer!
"So, you're Kodachi's slave," she sighed with relief.
"No. I'm not. I'm free. Always. No loopholes."
"What? How?!"
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On the outside, the Happy Hours Love Hotel, minus the garish, neon sign, looked like a normal hotel.
Inside it was something else. The dimly-lit lobby was deserted. Along with the standard verity of vending machines (that took the place of room service), and others that rented cosplay outfits and props, there was a large, built-in one that took up most of a wall. Its panels had pictures of the interiors of the different bedrooms. The ones that weren't backlit were occupied and locked to outsiders. Each had a theme of their own; each extensively, and expensively, catering to a kink.
"I wonder which one your parents used," Akane said.
"I didn't need to hear that!" Ranma cried.
"SHH!" she hushed. "We don't want to be noticed!" That was the main purpose of a love hotel. It was a place where even a married couple would go to find anonymous privacy. (There was a nearby rogues gallery of those who had cheated…the hotel. It was a warning!)
"Man!" His fist tightened around the roll of tokens. How many other rolls had his mom and pop bought?! Which rooms had they…, uh, been in; all of them?! They had been making up for ten lost years! It had broken his old man and sent him to the infirmary! How compulsive was their arousal for each other?!
Suddenly he screamed.
"RANMA!" she yelled at him. Her mallet had come out automatically and she had almost used it to stop him embarrassing her. And himself. Them as a couple. A couple here for only one obvious reason. Was there anybody else around!?
"The Something! I'd almost forgotten I could be like mom and have the uncontrollable hots for an idiot!"
"Kuno!" Akane now remembered "Romeo" explaining his fear to her on their Lost Lovers Wood date and why he had to also date somebody else, but as a girl: It was a boy she thought could beat the delusional fake-samurai as a boyfriend in her heart! Only the boy turned out to be a girl, Ukyo. "...Maybe you can find a better idiot?" she said weakly.
"Now I absolutely KNOW I gotta have sex with you, Akane!" he declared, grabbing her by the shoulders and squeezing so she couldn't slip from his fingers.
"Don't you know how to make a girl feel special," Akane said almost flatly. Almost.
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"I'm no longer a slave, and the girls you "own" don't have to be, either. Are you interested in freeing your slaves?"
"Uh…." Temptation called Ukyo. Cheap labor was a siren call to the girl forced into the life of a of a yen-pinching miser. She had basically been on her own ever since Genma Saotome stole her dowry and was all but disowned by her father. After all, she wasn't a son, just a daughter. Yet, somehow, by dedication, exhausting work, forced intelligence and sheer luck, she had survived this long trek into young womanhood. Disguised as a son.
She looked at the nude girl beside her. What if she didn't have to free Shampoo? She had a hunch it could be agreeable, for a time, with Cologne. The Chinese woman had presented herself to her as another businesswoman. And the wise(?) elder did seem to want to punish her wayward grand-daughter, didn't she(?). "Shampoo, put some clothes on and go see your grandma."
While the amazon did, Ukyo made other calculations. She could still keep Akane under her control, too. And if she freed the others, none of them (hopefully) would be around long enough to get designs on Ran-kun.
When she was alone in the apartment, she said into the phone, "Okay. Tell me how I free the ones I want to free."
"Uh, uh. We have to make a deal first. The reason I took a chance and allowed myself to become a slave to the entitled and violent brat was because I saw how it could profit me. Now I'm looking to make a profit from you, as well."
"No way, Sister! I'm from the School of Hard Knocks: I'm not going to split the income I make from my new restaurant with you, or anybody but the taxman." As if she could make much at this stage.
"I'm not asking for a share of your business. In fact, I'm offering to give you money."
"So, you're a loan shark!"
"No, again. You'd have to pay no interest at all. It's an investment."
Despite herself, Ukyo was intrigued.
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The love hotel had over a hundred rooms, each different in what they had to offer. How would they choose? They closed their eyes and Ranma tapped a token against the Room Vending Machine until it slipped into a slot besides one of the pictures.
Akane was afraid to see which bedroom the key that fell into the tray was for. "This could affect our whole life as a couple," she said. Then gulped.
"Why?"
"Because first times can imprint a sexual addiction on you, can't they(?) You can end up with a fetish – Become a pervert!"
"Oh, yeah. I think that's what Ukyo was talkin' about." Had she been fighting with Shampoo because she wanted his first sex to be as a man not as a woman like Shampoo had wanted…or had she just been keeping her own rival away from using the cursed body first?
"Hmm. Maybe we had better get another room. This one looks weird."
"Weird?" Akane peeked with one eye.
Then both eyes opened: Wide! "No! The room…. It's perfect!" Fireworks of fantasy fulfilled lit up her eyes!
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"So, we have an oral contract, Ukyo Kuonji? Your slaves return from their scavenger hunts and you buy the special items they find from them with my money. Everybody's a winner! The girls you want to free are free, the girls profit and I, Nabiki Tendō , receive said special items."
"I guess we do have an agreement. If I get first dibs. But I still have no idea how this gets all of us out from under the Kodachi Clause!"
"We can thank Kodachi herself and her lack of foresight. Being obscenely wealthy with a castle estate brimming over with treasures, she thought there was nothing she could want from me. Thus, she allowed me to add the Nabiki Clause."
"You going to tell me what that is?"
"Of course I am! It's a piece of cleverness I'm proud of. I quote: The aforesaid Slave Master shall not have any claim to the material assets of the aforesaid slave. If the Slave Master does make such a claim, it will be counted as manumission of aforesaid slave, i.e., self-payment of their freedom in perpetuity."
"Oh, I see! She had so much money, she didn't care if you made money off of the tournament on her dime. Her mind wasn't on getting what was spent on it back."
"Right. She was too focused on acquiring fourteen toadies. Three in particular. Too bad for Sasuke that he didn't get any female companionship."
"Out of curiosity, what could you have had that Ms. Moneybags would want."
"Why photos of Ranma, of course. Mostly of him as a hunk."
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"Aw, man. Do I really gotta wear this?" Ranma griped, looking at what was in the clear plastic garment bag a couple of tokens had paid for from a cosplay vending rack.
"Yes! It's what the prince wears in the movie!" Akane said, joyfully hugging her own costume bag. She had on a big, romance-besotted grin. "And I am your princess!"
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Karma: Chi flow. Top martial artists make extensive use of the ki of one's own and others' emotions. Instead of concentrating and redirecting chi energy, misuse of ki changes the flow. A different mix of yin and yang than is intended results. The channels through which chi flows can become restricted, blocked or even interact with the magic that the chi filters through!
Liability of owning a slave: In manga Chapter 388, The Sales Force, Ukyo got sick and it was left up to her unsupervised, unpaid help, Konatsu (and Ranma and Akane) to keep her restaurant open and bringing in customers. It nearly ruined her.
The "special items" will be those found in Ranma mangas and anime. I may even add one or two of my own.
Okay, the Kodachi Clause is going to be dealt with. But what about Cologne and her plans for the slaves? Can Nabiki match wits with the Second Elder of the Women Heroes?