Genderfluid Mechanics
By: JaquiK

Chapter 3: A Quick Checkup

"Alright, this is the place," Aki declared as he led the still resigned red haired martial artist by the hand towards the quite familiar building. He looked over as his friend (maybe boyfriend/girlfriend? They hadn't really figured that one out yet) read the sign outside the entrance.

"Chiropractor, huh?" Ranma observed, his voice soft but noticeably once again in a deliberately lower register.

"Plus acupuncture and moxibustion," Aki continued. "Dr. Tofu is a fully licensed medical doctor though. Been taking care of and helping me out since I was a little kid. In more ways than one," he added with a nostalgic smile.

"Oh," Ranma said, somewhat lost in thought before looking at the entrance. "Uh, guess I'll wait out here while you get the hot water and stuff."

"Hey, it's okay," Aki said with a gentle tone in his voice and a reassuring squeeze of Ranma's hand. "Trust me, it's safe."

He carefully led the other boy inside the clinic. It was still early enough so the waiting area was empty save for the young woman currently sitting behind the reception desk idly looking at some paperwork. At the sound of them entering, the woman looked up and started her greeting. "Good morning. How may we-oh, Aki! Did you get yourself another injury this morning?"

Aki gave a reassuring smile as he walked up to the desk with Ranma in tow. "Good morning, Mei. No, I'm not actually here for me this time."

"Ah, I see." Mei smiled over to Ranma who was currently looking down at the desk and deliberately not at the receptionist. "So, how can we help you, miss?" The flinch that Ranma gave was slight, but apparently still noticed. "Oh? Oh! I'm really sorry. That's still kind of an automatic response for me. I really should know better by now though since…um…" she looked over to Aki with an unsure expression.

"It's okay, Mei," Aki said while giving the red-haired boy's hand another squeeze. "This is Ranma, and he does know about me. Ranma, I would like you to meet Mei. She works here and is a bit like you and me, except that she moved over from one side to the other and stays there the whole time."

"Oh," Ranma replied, finally looking up. "Um, it's nice to meet you, Mei."

"It's nice to meet you too, Ranma," Mei replied. "So, I'm guessing Aki brought you here to talk to the good doctor about what you're going through?"

"Well, I would like Ranma to see Doctor Tofu soon, but we do actually have to get to school," Aki said. "Right now, we just need to get a kettle of hot water for him."

"Oh, alright," Mei said with a look of slight confusion at the request. "You can use the electric kettle in the kitchenette. Please help yourself."

"Thanks," Aki said before looking over to Ranma and his hand still firmly clenched in Aki's own. "Don't worry, I'll be right back, okay?"

Ranma looked back at the reassuring look on Aki's face and quickly let go of his hand, adopting a very casual, nonchalant stance. "Hey, I'm fine. I'm pretty sure I can handle hanging out with her for a couple of minutes. Um, so, Mei. Do you, like, happen to know any martial arts and stuff?"

Aki took that moment to slip off to the kitchenette, giving Ranma a chance to practice some small talk with another person who would understand them. It took a little bit of fiddling for him to properly get the electric kettle going. As the water reached warm but still very human safe temperatures and he started to think how much Kasumi would like a kettle like this one, a loud scream drew his attention.

Turning back, he saw Ranma now perched on all fours on the receptionist's desk with a shocked look on his face. It somewhat reminded Aki of a cat being startled. Looking over to what must have caused Ranma's reaction, he found a plastic model skeleton, currently being puppeted by…

"Doctor Tofu!" Aki chastised.

Said doctor turned towards Aki and then used one of the skeleton's hands to give a little wave. "Oh, good morning Aki. Are there any new injuries I should be aware of?"

Aki rolled his eyes at the doctor's standard greeting for him. "No no, I'm here with my new…um…friend, Ranma. We just need to take care of a quick problem of his before going to school."

Tofu adjusted their glasses and then smiled at the redhead who was climbing down off the desk. "Ah, I see. It is a pleasure to meet you Ranma. As Aki mentioned, my name is Tofu and I am the doctor of this humble clinic. I see you've already met my receptionist, Mei. Oh, and this is my assistant, Betty," they said while once again waving the skeleton's hand. "Now, just to make sure I heard correctly, you wish to be referred to as 'he' and 'him', correct?"

"Yes. Well, currently I am," Ranma answered. "If we meet some other time, it might be 'she' and 'her'. I'm definitely a guy right now though," he quickly added.

"I understand," Tofu replied. "For myself, I actually go by neither. You can refer to me by 'they' or 'them'. So, how can I help you, young man," they said, with an extra reassuring tone on the final part."

"Oh, well, it's…" Ranma fidgeted a bit before looking back up at the doctor. "Um, you're a martial artist too, right?"

"Yes, that's true," Tofu replied with a bit of surprise.

"Yeah, I noticed with the way you snuck up on me and all," Ranma explained. "So, have you happened to hear about a place called Jusenkyo?"

"Hmmm, that does sound familiar. Tofu pondered for a few moments, while placing the skeleton's hand up to its chin to make it look like it was also deep in thought. "Ah, right. A training area in the Northwest region of China. It is said that those that dare to train on those grounds will be met with a terrible curse."

Tofu must have seen Ranma's slight flinch as they adjusted their glasses again. "Oh dear. Well, unfortunately curses are nowhere near my speciality, but as a doctor, I solemnly promise to assist you as much as I can with whatever malady you are experiencing."

"Um, thanks Doc," Ranma said, "but the curse ain't really so bad, most of the time at least. I mean, I bet it'd suck for other people. Well, not all other people, just…" Ranma turned towards Aki with a bit of a pleading expression in his eyes.

Aki gave a reassuring smile and walked up to him with the electric kettle. "Here, it will be easier to show them. You two might want to brace yourselves."

Ranma took the kettle with a slight nod and glanced over at the other two before pouring the warm enough water over his head. It was only the second time that Aki was able to fully see the transformation up close. This time, he was prepared and made sure to carefully observe the change in action. It was surreal, reminding him somewhat of that weird morphing effect he would sometimes see in a movie or on TV. Except this one was so much clearer and more realistic, since of course it was really happening right in front of his eyes. The increase of several centimeters in height. The bright red hair darkening all at once until it became pitch black. The changes to the face which…well it was interesting. The shifts managed to be so small and yet so massive at the same time.

"Hmm, yes I see what you mean," Tofu said, their voice remaining calm and level as they put away the model skeleton off to the side. Mei, on the other hand, had a bit of a different reaction.

"You…but that…you just…changed into…what, what, WHAT?!"

"Yeah," Ranma said with a bit of an embarrassed expression as he passed the now empty kettle back to Aki. "Turns out there's not just one curse at Jusenkyo. The place has a whole buncha springs, and if ya fall into one ya turn into whatever drowned in it before. Hot water will turn ya back, least til cold water finds ya again."

Mei blinked a couple of times at the explanation. "Hot…you don't mean…"

"Yup, I fell in the Nyannichuan. The Spring of Drowned Girl." He looked down at his currently male form. "Got kinda lucky with that one. My pops turns into a panda."

"A panda?" Mei managed to yelp out.

"Oh yeah," Ranma continued. "There's a whole buncha animal curses there. I coulda turned into a frog or a dog or a…ugh, a cat." Aki noticed how he grimaced a bit at that last one.

"Yes, it would seem you were quite lucky on that part," Tofu noted. "In fact, given what you said earlier, I would say the results ended up being rather fortuitous for you."

"Not sure I'd go that far, Doc," Ranma said. "Okay sure, it did help me finally figure out what was going on with me my whole life, but to be honest, getting…well, splashed all the time has been more of a pain more often than not. Plus now I gotta figure out what I'm going to do about school. Sometimes, it feels like I'd just be better off without the whole curse and stuff. Well…"

Ranma continued to talk, but Aki wasn't hearing any of it at the moment. Instead, he was caught in the complete shock of the other boy's betrayal. He couldn't believe it. They talked about this last night. They came to an understanding. But now, here Ranma was, throwing casual derision at the very thing Aki dreamed about for so long, the words like twisted metal to his ears. How could he…how could he…

"Oh, by the way, Aki."

Tofu's words snapped him out of his thoughts. "Yes, doctor?"

"I almost forgot, there's something important I need to talk to you about right away. Can we go into my office? Don't worry, it shouldn't take too long."

The two walked into Tofu's office and the doctor carefully closed the door behind them. "So, what's the important thing you need to talk with me about?" Aki asked.

"Oh, nothing really," Tofu responded, turning towards Aki with a reassuring look on their face. "I just wanted to get you out of that situation before you got too upset."

"Upset? What makes you think I would be getting upset?" Aki said with a slight laugh and a somewhat strained grin."

"Well, for one thing, I'm going to need to buy a new kettle."

Aki blinked in confusion before looking down at the crushed ball of metal in his hands. "Oh. Oh doctor, I'm sorry. I…I didn't mean…"

"It's okay, Aki," Tofu said, calmly taking the ruined kettle from Aki's slightly trembling hands and putting it down on their desk. "I was planning on getting a new one soon anyway. Now why don't you go sit down and rest for a bit. I can write up a note for your classes."

Aki looked up with a grateful smile which quickly dropped as he shook his head. "Thank you, but no, I need to get Ranma to school."

"Well, perhaps it would be for the best right now if Mei showed him the way there."

"No! No, it's fine." Aki took a moment to take a deep breath. "Look, it is a bit frustrating, but Ranma can sometimes say things he doesn't really mean. Last night, she mentioned to me how she has a really hard time figuring out what to talk about with other people. It certainly doesn't help the way her dad raised him. That's exactly why I need to be there. You know how the kids at school can be. Ranma's going to need me to help him deal with all that."

Tofu looked hesitant at first, but in the end gave a nod. "Alright, I will trust you on this. Please remember to keep in mind how this must be from Ranma's end. An accidental splash of water and suddenly you're in the body you very much don't want to be in at the moment."

"Yeah, I get it. I really do. It's just…"

Tofu placed a hand on Aki's shoulder with a reassuring smile. "I understand. To be honest, I'm a little surprised you didn't immediately run to the airport and get the first available plane ticket to China the moment you first heard about it."

"Well, it may have crossed my mind," Aki said with his own smile, "but I don't think my allowance is going to be enough to cover for the trip. Besides, there's no way I'm leaving Ranma behind and…um…let's just say he can't go back to China at the moment."

"I see. Well, you better get going to school. I would like the chance to talk with Ranma as soon as possible, though."

"Alright. I'll see if we can stop by after school."

The two left the office to find Ranma and Mei standing together and looking back at them. "Right, I suppose you better hurry or you'll be late," Mei said before turning to Ranma. "Please keep in mind what we talked about, okay?"

"Yeah, I will. Ready to go, Aki?"

"Yep. Thanks for the water, Mei. I'll, um, see you later, Doctor."

The two left the clinic and took off in a quick jog to make up time. As they hurried along, Aki glanced over to Ranma, who was currently deep in thought, a noticeable darkness in his eyes. "Is something wrong?" Aki asked.

After a few beats, Ranma replied back, not turning to look over at him. "Is that guy still at the school?" There was a cold chill in his tone.

"What guy? Aki asked. Unfortunately, there were several possibilities to warrant that tone.

"That teacher. The one that Mei thought she could talk to."

Aki's eyes widened before he quickly shook his head. "No, no he's not. He actually retired a couple of years ago."

"Oh, I see." There was a tinge of disappointment in Ranma's voice that almost caused Aki to lose his footing.

"Ranma. Were…were you planning on getting expelled on your first day?"

Ranma kept his gaze straight ahead of him. "I don't know."

Aki wasn't sure how to respond to that, instead deciding to focus on the school ahead of them, when a realization struck. "Hey, Ranma. Did you decide how you want to go to school?"

Ranma instantly broke out of his dark mood and looked towards the ground with a slight redness on his face. "No, I haven't. Oh, maybe before school starts, we can ask the person you talked to."

"Huh?"

"You know, the person you told your secret to. They didn't go blabbing to your dad, so they must be trustworthy."

"Ranma…I haven't told anyone at school. No one there knows about me."

"What?" Ranma looked at Aki with confusion. "Doesn't someone have to know to give you that uniform exception?" he asked while gesturing to the track suit Aki was wearing.

"No," Aki responded with a sigh and a shake of his head. "The exception has nothing to do with me being a guy sometimes."

"Really? Then what is it?"

Aki's eyes narrowed and he started to pick up speed as he saw the school gates, as well as what was waiting just beyond them.

"You're about to find out."