Making a Silk Purse
A Finding Oneself Story
By: JaquiK
Akane Tendo was taking advantage of a nice calm Saturday afternoon to catch up on her current schoolwork, relaxing in a nice casual outfit consisting of a simple black skirt and one of her English phrase shirts, this one proudly declaring 'EARTH: LOVE IT'. Even as she sat at her brand new metal desk, which she promised her eldest sister Kasumi would remain intact, and ground away at her latest Year 11 math assignment, she couldn't help but have a smile on her face the entire time. "Awright!" she declared to herself as the current worksheet was finished, taking a moment to stretch out in her chair.
A slight glint caught her attention and she looked up to her outstretched hands, specifically one particular finger where a blue and silver ring resided. As she observed the ring reflecting the sunlight coming from the nearby window, the smile on her face grew even more. Yes, pre-calculus was really nothing compared to everything that happened in her life, most importantly the past few weeks. After all the chaos and the battles and the feeling of constantly going around in circles, who would have thought that everything could be changed by a simple day out with a girl. A wonderful red haired girl that it turned out was real this whole time.
Suddenly, a shadow passed over her hand, causing her ring to stop shining. She frowned slightly at that until a knock on her windowsill caught her attention. Akane looked over and beamed at the sight of the very girl in question crouching in the open window above her desk with a big grin on her face. She was once more wearing the red jacket that originally belonged to Kasumi, along with a dark shirt and jeans. It seemed that this outfit was becoming as much a part of her wardrobe as her red Chinese shirt. Her gorgeous red and now also blonde hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, although the blonde highlights were noticeably starting to fade and would need to be redone soon. Most importantly, though, was the ring hanging by a chain around the girl's neck. A red and silver ring, personally picked out by Akane and perfectly matching her own. A special ring that signified a promise to a girl who was once her fiancé and was now her girlfriend.
"Ranma, I told you I was going to finish up my schoolwork tonight," Akane chastised, while making sure to keep the playfulness in her voice.
"Yeah, I know." Ranma's smile dropped and turned into a pensive expression as she started to poke her fingertips together. "Hey, um, Akane…"
"Look, I know you're still trying to get over your dad's crap, but if you need help with your homework, you can just ask me." A smirk started to grow on Akane's face. "I guess we could call up Yuka and Sayuri and have a group study session together. I mean, it's not exactly the same as a double date, but…"
Ranma seemed to think for a moment, then shook her head. "No…well, that does sound really fun, and I guess maybe I could let you check those weird equation thingies later, um…if you still want to after this, but…there's something really important I need to tell you first."
The slight fidgeting that Ranma was doing was starting to get to Akane. "What is it?" Her eyes widened and she quickly got to her feet. "Is Shampoo back from China?" While she had been doing her best to prepare, she honestly had no idea how desperate the Amazon girl would become now that she and Ranma were fully committed to their relationship.
"Nah, I still haven't heard from her at all." Ranma's head was turned away slightly, as though she couldn't bear to look Akane in the eyes at the moment. "It's about Ryoga."
"Ryoga?" Akane leaned forward on her desk, her face centimeters away from her girlfriend. "Did something happen to him? Is he hurt?"
"No no, he's perfectly fine." Ranma leaned back a bit and waved her arms in a placating manner before looking away again and muttering in a quiet voice, "at least for now."
"What does that mean?" The panic was beginning to rise in Akane's voice.
"It's um…" Ranma cautiously turned back towards Akane. "Can you meet me down in the dojo? I'll explain everything there."
"Why don't you just tell me now if it's so important?" Akane demanded.
"I can't. It ain't just my story to tell." Ranma eyes met with Akane's briefly before she leaned in to kiss her. The surprise instantly faded as Akane quickly returned the kiss, savoring the taste of her girlfriend's lips.
Even though the kiss ended all too soon in her opinion, Akane still leaned back with a warm smile on her face. That faded, though, when she saw the guilty look on the redhead's face. "Ranma?"
"Sorry, it's just…I know how you're gonna react, and I wanted to get one more kiss in before…" Ranma paused for just a moment, then turned and left through the window.
Akane stood frozen, staring at the spot vacated by the person she was now only fairly certain was still her girlfriend. Her hands gripped the sides of her desk, and she vaguely noticed the sound of creaking metal in her ears as her mind rushed to hold off the wave of imagined worst case scenarios that swarmed in a way very similar to certain morning brawls before school. However, unlike those annoying boys who were looking for a date, she could not easily fight off the doubts that were now starting to overwhelm. Shaking her head, she let go of the now slightly warped desk and quickly rushed out of her room, using the actual door.
Ranma hung her head as she went into the dojo, ready to resign herself to whatever her fate would be. She looked around, making sure everything was still in place. The large group of buckets and kettles were there in the corner, ready in case several demonstrations were necessary or if Akane decided to pull an Ucchan upon the reveal of Ryoga's curse. A small part of her hoped that would be the tomboy's reaction, but realistically she knew that chance was small. As an afterthought, she took off her red jacket and set it aside, wanting to avoid a stray hit with one of the kettles potentially ruining it, although at the very least the sports bra she had on was stretchy enough where it wouldn't be too much of a problem. More than once, she and Akane discussed the ways they could get her permanently locked in her cursed form. What she never mentioned, though, was the strange heavy feeling she felt in the pit of her stomach whenever she truly thought about it, and the confusion about why it happened.
She quickly shook off that feeling as her eyes settled on the middle of the dojo where the most important part of this was. The part that was currently giving a death glare at her. Ryoga Hibiki, still sitting exactly where he was left, having apparently only managed to break about half of the chains that were wrapped around him.
"She's coming down right now. Time to face the music, P-chan," she declared with a noticeable tone of defeat in her voice as she lightly fidgeted with the ring hanging from her neck.
Ryoga's eyes widened as he struggled more with his restraints. "No way, I haven't even done anything for months! Come on, she's your girlfriend now, right? You should be the one to tell her. I bet she won't even try to kill you."
"Just be glad I'm here at all, pig boy," Ranma growled out. "I know I didn't really help things, but you were the one that started it, so-"
"What did he start?" a quiet, cold voice behind her asked.
Ranma looked down from the spot where she was now clinging from the ceiling to see a nervous Akane standing in the doorway. Well, at least she's not angry…yet.
"Oh, Akane!" Ryoga quickly stood up, shattering the remaining chains that were holding him in place. He gave a nervous laugh and started to rub the back of his head. "We were just…uh…arguing over what kind of takeout we were going to order, so-"
Ryoga was interrupted by Ranma dropping from the ceiling and landing right on top of him. The fanged boy managed to remain upright, only hunched over slightly as the flame haired martial artist was perched on top of his head. "Sorry, pork butt, but I'm not letting us get out of this one." Ryoga growled and tried to grab at Ranma, but she simply hopped out of the way and back on the ground. He turned to probably argue or more likely to knock her away so he could avoid all this, but he paused at the resigned expression on Ranma's face. She continued, her voice low and sad. "Look, I'm done keeping secrets. I just…I don't want to hide anything from her anymore."
She turned to Akane, whose expression grew even more worried. "Ranma, this is…it's starting to sound like when you were hiding from your mother."
Ranma froze, not at the absurd idea of this being similar (that situation with her mom was nothing like what Ryoga was doing with Akane), but instead at the reminder she still needed to find a way to explain, well, who she really was to her mother. She was going to, really soon of course. It was just that this directionally challenged idiot managed to wander into the dojo today, so she'd need to get this taken care of before he wandered off somewhere again.
She shook off her thoughts on that future potential rejection to instead keep her focus on the current one. "Well, pig boy? Are you going to tell her?" She turned to see Ryoga babbling incoherently and slowly crushing what was left of the chains into powder. With a sigh, she turned back to the person who would hopefully still be her girlfriend. "Guess it's up to me then. Akane…um…you see…"
Ranma paused as she suddenly found herself at a loss at exactly how to explain it. She'd gone and called the idiot 'P-chan' enough that simply saying that Ryoga is P-chan probably wouldn't even register to Akane. She took a glance over to the buckets in the corner, but quickly dismissed that too. If she just splashed the guy, he'd be extra vulnerable to Akane's initial reaction.
"Listen, Akane…" Ranma lowered her gaze to the floor in front of her, not risking looking into the tomboy's eyes at the moment. "Please know that we never wanted to hurt you with this, okay? Don't blame Ryoga. Heck, I should have tried to stop it right away, but it kinda just went out of hand and stuff, you know?"
"No, I don't know," Akane responded. "Ranma, what are you talking about?"
"Well…" Ranma's mind struggled at a way to explain what happened other than…just explaining what happened. "You remember that fight between me and Ryoga in middle school that didn't get to happen?"
Akane paused in thought for a few seconds, before realization apparently struck. "Oh right, the one you couldn't be bothered to wait more than three days for even though you knew about his horrible sense of direction."
"Hey!" Ranma looked back up, bristling at the accusation. "I wanted to wait longer, but stupid Pops dragged me away to China." She stopped for a moment to collect herself. "The point is when Ryoga showed up and missed the duel, he didn't just lay around being depressed. He followed me."
"To China?" Akane asked, her eyes widening. At Ranma's nod, she gave a tiny sigh. "No wonder he was so mad at you back then. Imagine, wandering all around China for months and never managing to find you."
Ranma flinched slightly at that, but readied herself. It was finally the moment of truth time. "Not exactly. We did run into each other and something sorta happened…" She paused to give the final part the proper weight. "...at Jusenkyo."
She watched the other girl closely, hoping that the tomboy would finally be able to make the connection. After a few seconds, Akane gave a small gasp. "Wait, you don't mean…"
Ranma couldn't help but notice the hurt showing through her shocked expression. "Yeah, it's…Akane, I'm really sorry." She still wasn't used to actual apologies like this, so she hoped her words managed to match how bad she felt. "This was just when I got the Nyannichuan curse. The guide hadn't explained how it worked yet so I thought I was stuck as a girl forever, and I was so confused and…and scared, but mostly I was just pissed off at my Pops. So I was chasing him around, not even seeing where I was going, and I accidentally ran into Ryoga, and…" She trailed off and looked away, grabbing her ponytail and nervously fidgeting with it. "I was so out of it and not thinking straight and I didn't even realize it was Ryoga at the time and he didn't know it was me of course until after our big fight at school, you know the one where your hair got…um…yeah, so the thing happened and it was really stupid and I shoulda just told you 'til you understood, but I was worried you were gonna get mad and stay mad and…never forgive me."
She cautiously spared a glance to Akane, whose face was going through a range of emotions she couldn't quite decipher. A few times, the short haired girl opened her mouth to give a response, only to immediately shut it again, looking completely unsure. After about a minute of this, she started to pace up and down the length of the dojo. Every few laps, she would stop in front of Ranma and hold a finger up as if she were finally about to speak, then lower it to continue her pacing. Ranma looked over to Ryoga to see if he had anything to add, but the boy just stood in place, his face frozen in fear.
Eventually, Akane fully stopped and looked back to Ranma, not bothering to spare even a glance over to Ryoga. "Ranma, just…" Although there was no anger present, her voice still had a noticeable tone of hurt in it. "Please just tell me it's over." She held up her right hand, showing the blue and white ring on her finger. "Tell me it was over before you and I…"
"Yeah. Yes, of course!" Ranma quickly answered back. "I mean, Ryoga's with Akari now, so it's never gonna happen again, right?" She turned to Ryoga for confirmation, but he remained perfectly still and didn't respond.
"Okay, good," Akane sighed with relief. Ranma allowed herself to relax just a bit, until Akane looked back at her with a worried expression. "Wait, does Akari know about this?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, she found out a while ago, and you know it's her so she was super excited when she did." She gave a little chuckle at how the girl who liked pigs more than anyone else in the world managed to get together with the guy who turned into one.
For some reason, Akane didn't laugh along. "Excited? What does…you know what, nevermind. I don't want to know. Let's just forget it and put the whole thing behind us."
"Really? You mean that?" A smile of cautious hope started to grow on Ranma's face, with a matching one appearing on Ryoga. "You're not upset?"
"Of course I'm upset!" Akane yelled back, causing the other two to flinch slightly. She then gave a beleaguered sigh. "I guess I'm mostly upset at myself though. I sort of always suspected something, but I could just never bring myself to believe it, even with all those signs right in front of my eyes."
"Hey, don't blame yourself," Ranma said, not wanting to see Akane get down on herself again. "I probably didn't help any. I mean, some days I'd be so mad at the jerk and just want to end it right then and there, then other days I did my best to make sure the dummy didn't get hurt. I guess that must have been a little confusing."
"Thanks, Ranma, but that's not much of an excuse," Akane admitted, before she started chuckling to herself. "Remember the whole stupid martial arts ice skating competition? I should have figured it all out right there. No wonder Ryoga was so insistent on stepping in."
"Oh yeah." Ranma started to join in on the laughter, thinking about how poor little P-chan became the unfortunate prize for that competition, complete with a locked heart-shaped collar that stuck around when he changed back into a human.
Akane continued with mirth building in her voice. "And that time Ukyo set me and Ryoga up on that fake date together and what happened in the middle of that lake."
"Right," Ranma responded, her laughter a little less enthusiastic now, and of course Ryoga would pick this point to join in. Yeah, she recalled her jealousy over that date, even if Akane wasn't taking it seriously, and how she disguised herself and pretended to be Ryoga's fiancée to interrupt any potential rowboat romance. Ryoga somehow managed to get out of that scuffle completely dry, only to run into a sprinkler almost immediately afterwards.
Akane then let out an extra big laugh. "Oh, I just remembered when Ryoga had that silly doodle on his stomach and you were wearing that volleyball outfit. You really were trying to tell me then. I guess I just wasn't listening."
Ranma blinked in confusion. Sure, Akane would think of that, since the 'doodle' also showed up on his pig form. Of course, that was because the doodle was actually a special mark given to Ryoga that made him an invincible fighter and would only disappear if he was beaten in combat. The huge downside of it was that the special mark ended up resembling a really goofy looking face. However, that didn't explain the other part. "Wait, you remembered the volleyball outfit?"
"Well, sure. It was a bit noticeable," Akane said with a smile. "Especially the cute bow at the end of your pigtail and the way those tight little red shorts would perfectly show off your…anyway, I'm sure it had something to do with Ryoga, so again I don't want to know."
"Um, yeah," Ranma quickly agreed. The reason was that she needed to get the drop on Ryoga to get rid of the mark, so her obvious go to was to disguise herself as a regular high school girl just playing volleyball in that empty lot where Ryoga was camping out in. And the dummy still didn't recognize it was me. Heck, so many times with so many different disguises where I didn't even hide my face and was just wearing a girlish outfit and he didn't know it was me and just treated me like a regular girl and…dammit, how the hell did I not figure out I was a girl sooner? All that stupid time wasted. Deep in the back of her mind, she could swear she heard a bit of soft giggling.
Ranma's now morose expression must have been noticed by Akane. "Hey, it's okay," she said in a placating manner. "I might need a little time to process all this, but I promise I'm not angry at you." She then gave a really big smile that only looked somewhat forced. "If anything, I should be angry at Ryoga for the whole Koi Rod thing."
"Koi Rod?" Now Ranma was even more confused. From what she could piece together after the fact, Ryoga managed to come into possession of a toy bamboo fishing pole that had a love spell on it. He intended to snag Akane with it, but ended up accidentally getting Ranma instead. Based on the bits she heard, she was very glad she had no memory of the whole thing, but she was also pretty sure P-chan had nothing to do with it.
"I know," Akane said, apparently agreeing with something Ranma had no clue of. "Even if I can't get mad at him, I can at least be disappointed that he couldn't just wait for you two to get back together normally and resorted to a love spell to speed it up. Really, how many times have you broken up and then made up again by that point?"
"Huh? Broken up? Made up?" It took a few moments for the realization to strike fully and cause Ranma's brain to skip. "Wait, me and Ryoga?!"
"Yeah, it's so obvious in hindsight, isn't it," Akane continued, apparently unaware of her girlfriend's current shock. "I mean, you two holding hands all the time in middle school should have been a big clue."
"I…but…" Ranma's mind was scrambling, trying to figure out how her perfectly constructed explanation could have been misinterpreted that badly. "I only did that so the idiot wouldn't get lost."
"Oh come on, Ranma," Akane lightly chastised. "We both know Ryoga can still follow a person just fine if he has to. Plus, the poor guy's so insecure about his atrocious sense of direction, he would never let someone else lead him by the hand unless there was another reason for it."
The redhead blinked at that. "Well, yeah he can be stubborn, but…"
"And he even followed you all the way to China!" Akane continued. "I don't care how big your rivalry was, there's way more to that than just missing a bread duel."
"That's…" Ranma shot a suspicious glance over to Ryoga, who at that point was doing an amazing impression of someone who'd won a staring contest against Medusa.
"I honestly feel bad that it took you telling me about you and Ryoga at Jusenkyo for me to finally put it all together." Akane then gave another laugh. "It must have been quite the night for you both there."
"What?!" Ranma's head quickly shot back towards Akane and she started rapidly waving her hands in front of her. "Woah, hold on. Ryoga and me had never done nothing like that!"
"Yeah, I know that, dummy!" Akane yelled back. She then flinched a bit and looked away. "I mean, I understand now that you're not like that. I promise, I get that now. She turned back to Ranma with a somewhat sly grin. "Besides, even if you actually were that much of a…well…Ryoga is way too shy to even attempt anything close to that anyway."
"Yeah, I guess shy is one way to put it," Ranma admitted.
"What I was trying to say," Akane continued, "is that obviously Ryoga had that crush on you, but couldn't admit it because 'boys shouldn't like boys and girls shouldn't like girls' and all that." A morose expression appeared on her face. "Guess we all had that garbage stuck in our heads, huh? But then, you had the curse and had that absolutely gorgeous girl's body. Then Ryoga managed to catch up to you and it was the perfect opportunity. I bet you both snuggled together under the stars all night long, right?"
"Snuggled?" Ranma squeaked out. "We…no…we didn't…"
"It's okay, Ranma. I already said I'm not mad at you." Akane then gave another overly large smile. It dropped slightly though as she continued. "Right, you still had that whole issue where you thought you couldn't be a real girl then, so you tried to cut it off there. I bet you and your dad snuck off so you didn't have to tell him directly. No wonder he was so mad at you when he found you again."
"That's not…" Ranma's mind began to short circuit a bit from Akane's very earnest and honest misunderstanding. Of course, the real reason Ryoga was so mad was because she accidentally body checked him off a cliff right into the Spring of Drowned Piglet. No snuggling ever happened. There was absolutely nothing about any supposed secret feelings the idiot had or her leaving him behind.
Right?
"I really can't believe how clear it all is now," Akane said with noticeable relief in her voice. "You'd break up with Ryoga, he'd get really mad and depressed about it, and then you'd get back together again and start all over. Although knowing you both, it wouldn't have gone past dates and hand holding and hugging. I bet you never even kissed." The smile on Akane's face then dropped completely. "Wait, is that what this is about? That you never got the chance to kiss each other?"
"Kiss?!" This time the cry was in stereo as Ryoga apparently chose this moment to break out of his shock and speak.
Akane took a deep breath, then gave a reassuring smile to them. "It's okay. I…I understand. You avoided it because you didn't think of yourself as a real girl back then, and now that you do, it's too late and you're both stuck with that regret." Her expression cracked slightly, but she kept going. "If you need this for closure, go ahead. I promise this won't affect our relationship." She then turned her back to them and as an added measure covered her eyes with her hands. "Just…just let me know when it's over so we can all move on."
Ranma blinked a couple of times as her brain tried to reboot. Wait, was that a thing with Ryoga? He did seem to be way too upset over something as simple as middle school cafeteria bread. And he always felt really subdued and quiet when she led him by the hand to and from school every day. Plus there was his reaction when he first saw her cursed form, saying she had an adorable figure. Did he have a crush on her, but hid it because she wasn't a real girl? Except she was, the entire time, even if she didn't realize it back then. If somehow, she managed to figure herself out sooner, say, back in middle school for instance, would she and Ryoga have possibly…
She slowly turned to the lost boy, who was staring right back at her. He was clearly thinking about what Akane said as well. However, the expression on his face was not one of disgust, but instead confusion and…curiosity?
Taking a nervous gulp, Ranma stepped closer to Ryoga, facing him completely. Maybe Akane's right. Maybe this is what we needed the whole time. Cautiously, she put her hand up and around the back of the boy's head. He closed his eyes and made his own nervous gulp, but offered no resistance as she slowly pulled him downwards. She closed her eyes in turn and leaned up on her toes. I guess, even if this doesn't fix everything, like all the times pig boy pretended to be-
The last slipped gear in Ranma's mind was finally knocked back into place and her eyes shot open.
Wait, what the hell am I doing?!
"STOP!" Ranma cried out and quickly pushed Ryoga away. She then turned around and put a hand up to her chest, trying to calm down her heart that was beating rapidly for some definitely unknown reason. "I…I can't…"
"Come on, Ranma," Akane said, still facing away. "We all know you need to get this out of your system, so just hurry up and get it over with already."
"There is nothing in my system to get out." Ranma turned and shot a glare at Ryoga. "Hey, help me out here, dummy."
Ryoga nervously glanced between Akane and Ranma, looking a bit unsure. "Um, I don't know. I mean, if Akane thinks we should do this…"
"Ah, come on, don't tell me you're actually falling for the tomboy's weird fantasies," Ranma shot back.
"Hey! My fantasies are not weird!" Akane yelled out, spinning around and glaring. After a moment, she seemed to realize what she just said. "Uh, not that I've ever had any fantasies or dreams or anything like that."
"Oh?" Ranma raised an eyebrow. A sly smirk then grew on her lips as she leaned forward a bit. "You're pretty insistent on getting me to kiss Ryoga. Are you sure you never had any perverted dreams about me and him alone together?"
"I'm trying to help you, idiot! If anyone's the pervert here, it's…" Akane flinched and looked away, although the fury never left her expression. After a few seconds she slowly turned back towards Ranma. "Why'd you even bother telling me this whole secret if you're just going to go and act like this?"
"This wasn't even…" Ranma threw her arms up in exasperation. "Can we at least go back to the P-chan thing?"
"P-chan?" Akane looked momentarily confused. "What does P-chan have to do with this?"
"Huh?" Ranma blinked and started to sweat a little as Akane walked up right in front of her.
"What exactly does little P-chan…" Akane's eyes narrowed as she leaned her face in, centimeters away from Ranma. "...have to do with all this?"
"Um…I…" Ranma leaned back, then looked over to Ryoga. "Just explain it to her already, P-chan!"
"Wait, is that what you're trying to say?" Akane stood up straight again as her anger seemed to dim, although she was still clearly frustrated. "Honestly, Ranma. I kind of get it, because of his sharp teeth and all, but if you two are actually broken up now, you should really stop using terms of endearment for him."
"That's not…I'm calling him that because he is P-chan!"
"He's…P-chan?" All the anger and frustration looked to drain away from the girl's face. On seeing this, Ranma was only able to give a slow nod. Akane then mechanically turned towards Ryoga. "Is that true?"
The fanged boy looked like he was moments away from running straight through the dojo wall to get away, but to Ranma's very reluctant credit, he managed to stay his ground. "Yes, it's…it's true," he said, his head hung down in shame. "That little black piglet you used to keep as a pet, that's me. I'm P-chan."
"You…that's…that's awful!" Akane quickly looked between the two, a horrified expression slowly growing on her face.
"Listen, Akane," Ranma quietly said, hoping to mitigate the upcoming damage as much as possible. "This isn't as bad as you might think."
"Of course it's bad," Akane shot back, still looking devastated. "P-chan somehow got turned into a human! Oh, this must be so confusing for my poor little baby!"
Ranma looked up from the spot on the floor where she face faulted. "Dammit, Tomboy, that's not what I…"
The short haired girl wasn't listening at the moment though. Instead she quickly bounded over to Ryoga and put her hands on his shoulders. "Are you okay? Does the whole having fingers thing feel weird for you? At least you figured out how to stand on two feet."
"Akane…um…you see…" Ryoga nervously stammered out.
Akane gave an awkwards smile. "Still working on the whole talking thing, huh? Guess I should have expected that. Oh, sorry about Ranma dragging you into her whole relationship thing with Ryoga. I can't believe she almost made you kiss her." She then shot a glare towards the redhead. "Honestly, you need to get closure with the actual Ryoga. Don't try to use P-chan as some kind of proxy. That won't solve anything."
"Hey!" Ranma called out, quickly getting back to her feet. "Me kissing Ryoga was your idea. No way I'd ever even think about touching lips with that pig."
Akane continued to ignore her girlfriend's cries of denial. "How did this even happen? Wait, did a mysterious peddler sell Ryoga some magic artifact, and that ended up causing you two to switch bodies? We really need to stop buying things from those people."
"Dammit, Akane, I already told you. He's got a Jusenkyo curse." Ranma said, fully exacerbated at this point.
"Jusenkyo?" Akane looked over to Ranma, slightly confused. "Wait you said Ryoga caught up to you at that place when you first got your curse. That means…"
Ranma prepared herself for the upcoming burst of fury. However, instead a smile appeared on Akane's face. "Oh, of course!" The short haired girl exclaimed, slamming a fist into her palm. "Ryoga must have fallen into a blank spring, just like I did. Then poor little P-chan fell into that spring and got cursed to turn into a copy of him." She turned her gaze over to the buckets and kettles in the corner. "So that's what they're here for. Really Ranma, you didn't need to get so many. I'm not Ukyo, you know." She went and grabbed one of the kettles, carefully testing the temperature of the water. "It's okay, P-chan," she said in a soothing voice as she walked back to the once again frozen Ryoga. "I can see how uncomfortable you are from all this. Don't worry though, I'll get you back to normal right now. Get ready, it's still a bit hot." She slowly poured the hot water over his head, then dropped the kettle once nothing happened. "Oh no, did you get locked somehow?"
With a deep sigh, Ranma slowly walked over to the corner. "No, Ryoga ain't locked. HIs curse is working just fine still," she said morosely as she picked up one of the buckets of ice cold water.
"Ryoga? You said this is P-chan. What are you…" Akane trailed off as she saw the expression on Ranma's face.
"You got it backwards," Ranma said, looking between her at the moment still girlfriend and Ryoga, who at this point had his eyes closed and his head hung low, fully resigned to his fate. "A pig didn't fall in a spring of drowned Ryoga. Ryoga fell in the spring of drowned piglet. Ryoga is P-chan." She paused a moment, then quietly stated, "I'm really sorry about this," before throwing the contents of the bucket right in Ryoga's face.
Akane looked on in shock as Ryoga shrunk down and disappeared in his clothes and they fell to the floor. She slowly knelt down over the now wriggling pile of clothes and moved aside Ryoga's shirt to find a tiny black piglet. "Ryoga? You're P-chan? You've been P-chan all along?"
The pig that was Ryoga looked terrified, but after a few moments he managed to give a simple nod of confirmation.
Silence permeated the room as Akane just stared at her former pet with an unreadable expression on her face. Finally, she slowly and mechanically stood up and turned towards Ranma, that ominously blank look still present. "You knew about this the whole time?" Her words were like a freshly formed icicle hanging above a doorway: smooth, cold, sharp, and potentially lethal.
"Since that first night," Ranma admitted, briefly recalling her own surprise when she tried to give Akane's newly found pet a bath. "Listen, I tried to-"
The harsh sound of the slap echoed against the dojo walls as Ranma stood unmoving, her head turned to the side. She blinked as she slowly lifted a hand up to her left cheek. As quick as it was, she could tell that Akane put nowhere near her full strength into that slap, and it was definitely far less than what she deserved. So why did it hurt this much?
She turned back to her girlfr…to Akane, ready for the rest of her punishment. Instead, she found the girl staring at her hand, a haunted look behind her eyes. It took a moment for Ranma to realize that she was focusing specifically on the blue and silver ring worn on one finger. "...Akane?"
The blue haired girl looked up, the troubled expression still on her face. Their eyes met for just a moment before she quickly turned and ran out of the dojo.
Ranma remained in place, staring at the dojo entrance and absentmindedly rubbing her cheek until a loud squeal caught her attention. Over in the corner, Ryoga, still in pig form, was trying to maneuver one of the other kettles. Before he could succeed in getting any hot water, she rushed over and picked him up by the bandana around his neck. "Sorry, buddy, but you're much easier to take like this, and I don't need you getting lost before we catch up to her." At the sight of his rapidly shaking head, she gave a small sigh and held him tightly in her arms. "No, we gotta do this, and we're gonna do it right. We'll go after Akane and apologize until she takes me back and also decided not to botch making pork cutlets for dinner tonight."
She started to march over to where she left her jacket, but stopped halfway as another thought remained stuck in the front of her mind. She looked down at her rival-turned-pig pressed up against her chest who was currently staring back up at her with a curious expression. "Um, and also," she cautiously said, "while we're looking for her, maybe we could have a little talk about what our relationship actually is."
All Akane could focus on at the moment was running. It didn't matter how long she ran or where she ended up as long as it wasn't back with…no, no, just run. Just keep going. Don't even think about how you hurt…dammit, why can't I just get lost somewhere like Ryoga or P-chan always-
Her feet stumbled underneath her and she fell hard onto the ground. Very slowly, she managed to pull herself into a sitting position, after which all she could manage to do was lean on the fence that went along the river and curl in on herself.
Dummy! You dummy! You stupid blind dummy! The tears started to flow freely as the weight of everything crashed down on her at once.
All that time. Ryoga spent all that time pretending to be her pet. Well, maybe he wasn't just pretending. It still hurt, but somehow she maybe understood a little. The guy was lost and alone so much, so of course he'd crave companionship. Not being able to control his strength definitely wouldn't help either, as she distinctly remembered the time he tried to hug her at the waterpark.
Dammit, the waterproof soap. That's why he was trying so hard to get at it. How did I not see it?
All the clues kept flooding into her mind. The way Ryoga would disappear just as P-chan happened to show up. The numerous times he was so enthusiastic to help Ranma find a cure for the curse, even though it was so obvious now he wouldn't want that to happen. Of course, he was trying to get the cure for himself! Then there was that stupid looking doodle that was on Ryoga's stomach for a bit, which perfectly matched the one that was on P-chan. And that dumb locket Azusa put on him. The locket that replaced the neckerchief that was normally on P-chan. A yellow one with black stripes that looked identical to the headband Ryoga always wore. Because it was the exact same!
I bet Ranma had a really good chuckle at how dense I was. Laughing behind my back, never even once trying to just straight up tell me-
"Wait, listen! Ryoga's…"
"And just where do you see Ryoga, you pervert?!"
A loud sob escaped Akane's lips as the memories came flooding back of that night when she first took in that little black piglet as her pet. She woke up in the middle of the night with Ranma in her room. It was so clear now what she was doing, and she even tried to explain herself back then, but of course Akane was having none of it. Even earlier in the night, Ranma tried to explain, but she just ignored the girl and even gave the pig a kiss on the nose.
Akane's eyes widened in horror. A kiss! She kissed Ryoga, even if she didn't realize it at the time. A guy she didn't even have any romantic feelings for and she gave him a kiss of affection. No wonder Ranma looked so hurt. Because she hurt her. Akane even went to bed that night wondering why Ranma would be so jealous of a pig. The possibility actually crossed her mind for just a moment, but she dismissed it immediately. Because not doing so would have been admitting that Ranma was right. And her stupid tomboy self would never have let that happen.
"Akane, have you ever heard me out before you clobbered me?"
She looked down at her hand, and the blue and silver ring. A ring symbolizing a promise she so easily and callously broke. Ryoga was the one who betrayed her trust. Even if he had some reason for wanting to be a pet, he still never once tried to tell her the truth. Ranma was the one who did, and her reward for finally succeeding was being struck by the very ring she gave as a token of love.
"Akane? Is that you?"
Akane looked up to find someone standing over her. Even through her tears, she could make out the concerned face, framed by emerald green hair with two pink highlights. "Akari?" she asked in a weary voice as she wiped her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I was looking for my Ryochan, but I think that can wait for a bit." The teen farm girl that was also a trainer of champion level sumo pigs had a soothing tone in her voice as she knelt down beside Akane, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay? Did something happen?"
Akane quickly shrugged off the gesture and curled in on herself more. She looked away towards the ground and stated in a flat voice, "Your boyfriend is a pig."
"Yeah, he really is wonderful," Akari said, although there was a bit of concern in her adoration. "Wait, is that why you're upset? Did he manage to beat Ranma in a duel or something? Hey, Ranma's still a pretty great guy, you know. You're really lucky to have a fiancé like him."
"Ranma…she…I…" It became too much for her again and without thinking Akane dove into Akari's arms, head buried into the other girl's shoulder as the tears started to flow once more. "Oh, Akari! I did something horrible to her. I hurt her and she…she hates me now. And…and I deserve it, too!"
"Hey, it's okay," Akari softly said while slowly stroking Akane's back. "I bet it's just a misunderstanding. I'm sure she doesn't-" Akari's hand suddenly stopped. "-Um, who are we talking about?"
It took Akane a moment to remember that she hadn't seen Akari in a while. Not since before…that day. She slowly pulled back to look the green haired girl in the eyes. "Ranma. She's a girl. A few weeks ago, she realized that she's been a girl all along."
"Oh neat, that finally happened. Good for her." The brief smile on Akari's face quickly dropped. "Oh, Akane. You didn't say something bad to her about that, did you?"
"No, of course not. I would never…" Akane's words trailed off as the truth came crashing down on her once more. "I did. All the time. Any chance I could I would yell at her and call her a pervert. Even during those times when it was obviously someone else's fault, I made sure to take it out on her and her only."
"Now, Akane, I'm sure you're exaggerating here," Akari said.
"I'm not!" Akane cried out. "Today, I learned about Ryoga's secret that he'd been keeping from me, and the one I got mad at, the one I struck, was the woman I love more than anything in the world. I don't deserve to be her girlfriend. I don't deserve to be anyone's girlfriend. I'm just a dumb, weak, angry, flat-chested tomboy!"
Before she could lament any more, she suddenly felt herself grabbed by her upper arms and lifted effortlessly into the air and onto her feet. She looked confused at Akari through tear soaked eyes.
"Yeah, that's just not true, and I'll prove it to you right now," Akari said in a matter of fact tone.
Before Akane could give a retort, the farm girl put two fingers to her lips and let out a shrill whistle that echoed through the street. After a moment, a rumbling sound could be heard. In her blurry vision, she could make out something the size of a bull charging right at her. Caught off guard and in no emotional condition for an actual fight, she fell back on her instincts and threw a single punch with her eyes closed. She could feel her fist make contact with something as she was able to somehow stand her ground. Cautiously, she opened her eyes, her vision starting to clear up, and she was able to make out the creature as Akari's prize sumo pig, Katsunishiki. The champion Yokozuna of pigdom was stopped completely in its tracks before collapsing on the ground.
"Oh, Akari, I'm so sorry!" Akane said, having one more layer of guilt placed upon her. "I didn't mean to…"
"Don't worry," Akari reassured once more, "Katsunishiki is perfectly fine, aren't you?" As if in response, the giant sized pig got to his feet and gave a squeal in apparent confirmation before casually trotting away. "There, you see?" Akari finished with a big grin.
"What…what was that for?" Akane asked, her confusion managing to override any other feelings at the moment.
"Don't you remember? My father won't let me date anyone that's unable to stand up to Katsunishiki, and you passed with flying colors." She went over and took both of Akane's hands into her own. "You are more than worthy of being a girlfriend to me, so that proves it right there. Ranma would have to be a complete fool to let you go, and I know she's not that dumb."
Akane just stared in shock as Akari's sweet words kept swirling around in her head, although a specific phrase always ended up right in the center. "Akari, you…want me to be your girlfriend? But…but what about Ryoga?"
Akari blushed and looked away slightly. "Oh, I mean…of course I still love my Ryochan. My heart does belong to him. But I must admit it also…" She looked back to Akane with a warm smile. "I've admired you so much, ever since the first day we met. I've especially admired the relationship you have with Ranma."
"You do?" Akane managed to repress a wince as she remembered some of the ways her relationship with Ranma really went back then.
"Yes," Akari confirmed. "Then there was that day when all four of us were at Ryoga's home. As much fun as I was having, I couldn't help but also notice the way Ryoga and Ranma were acting around each other, especially when Ranma was still wearing that maid outfit."
"Oh yeah, that." Akane tried her best to hide the blush on her face. "But, um…you should know that they did promise they were broken up for good, so you shouldn't need to worry about that."
"I don't mind," Akari said. "It did bother me a little at first, but I quickly saw that my wonderful Ryochan was able to have a heart big enough for both Ranma and myself. And if that's the case, then perhaps it could be the same for you."
"Me?" A scene quickly flashed in Akane's mind, of her in samurai garb, kneeling in front of two large pictures that were side by side and reciting the words, 'I shall have them both'. "No! No way!" she cried out, letting go of Akari's hands and stepping back. "I'm not like Kuno!"
"Yeah, of course you're not, silly," Akari responded, tilting her head slightly. "It's completely different when they both love you back."
Any other possible arguments Akane had were completely blown out of her mind by that simple logic combined with the radiant smile on the other girl's face. "Both? You mean you-"
"Akane!"
The two girls (Girlfriends? Are we? Is it official now?) turned to see a distinct red blur jumping down from the rooftops onto the street where they were. "Ranma!" Akane called out as she quickly ran up to meet the redhead, anxiety building up in her chest once more.
"I'm sorry!" two voices cried out at the exact same time. They blinked at each other for a moment, then both spoke up again. "You shouldn't be. I'm the one that-"
Akane gave a sigh and held up her hand. "Listen. You have nothing to apologize for. It was my fault."
"What? No way!" Ranma countered. "I didn't tell you about P-chan for more than a year! That's definitely all my fault."
"But you did though!" Akane countered back, frustration building in her voice. "Right away on that first night, and then you kept dropping hints over and over. It's really my fault that I never caught on."
"Yeah, well, I coulda done it better!" Ranma shot back, annoyance now showing on her own face. "I shoulda just used some cold water to show you. So it was totally my fault."
"Dammit, you idiot, I'm trying to apologize, if you'd just…" Akane trailed off as the reality of the situation struck her. A slight smile then formed on her lips. "Oh wow, we can't even apologize to each other without getting competitive over it," she noted amusingly.
"Yeah, I guess so," Ranma said with a hopeful smile. "Does that mean you forgive me? I can still be your girlfriend?"
"Of course," Akane said. She then looked down and noticed that Ranma was cradling Ryoga who was still in pig form. "Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself, P-chan?"
Ryoga had a scared look, but Ranma was holding him close and protecting him. "Please don't take it out on Ryoga," she said. "He never meant to hurt you."
"I know that," Akane responded. "He was just a pig after all. Besides, it's not like there was ever any romantic interest between us. That'd just be silly!"
"Oh! Yeah, exactly," Ranma quickly agreed. Akane couldn't help but notice the sudden nervousness in the redhead's voice or just how closely she was holding Ryoga to her chest.
"Hold on a second." It was probably a mistake to say this so soon after they made up with each other, but Akane just had to know. Besides, if what Akari was talking about was true… "You two never actually broke up that last time, did you."
"What?" Ranma's shocked expression managed to be mirrored perfectly by Ryoga. "Um, I mean…I guess that's basically true. But that's-"
"No, it's perfect!" Akari said, quickly jumping in to join them.
"Akari?" Ranma jumped back slightly as Ryoga gave a surprised squeal. "What are you doing here?"
"That's easy. I came to pick up our boyfriend," Akari said with a smile as she plucked the stunned pig from Ranma's hands.
"Listen, he's not actually-" Ranma paused a second as Akari's words apparently caught up to her. "-wait, what do you mean by 'our'?"
"Sorry, we have to get home. I'm already super late," Akari said apologetically. "Don't worry, our girlfriend can tell you everything." Cradling Ryoga in one arm, she pulled out a manilla envelope and handed it over to Akane. "Here, this has everything you need to explain this to her." She then leaned in and gave a quick kiss to Akane's cheek. Before Akane could react to this, Akari turned and ran over to where Katsunishiki was patiently waiting, hopping on his back. "We'll be back tomorrow to see you both. I look forward to it." With a loud cry, the giant pig stood up and carried both girl and piglet off into the distance.
The two girls stared silently for about a minute before Ranma then turned to Akane and asked, "'Our girlfriend'? What does that mean?"
"Oh." Akane broke out of her shock and looked to Ranma to give an answer, but the words needed somehow managed to elude her. After the third try, she looked down at the envelope in her hands and opened it up. However, the only thing within was a single piece of paper with sketches of all four of their faces in a square formation. In the top left was a nice drawing of Akari looking excited. The top right was Ryoga, whose sketch included pig ears and an admittedly cute looking snout. The bottom left had Ranma, specifically her girl form. And the bottom right featured a very nice looking, shoujo style drawing of Akane. In addition, there were thick lines connecting some of the sketches, making what appeared to be an hourglass shape.
"What?" Ranma asked, confused as she looked over the paper. "What does all that mean?"
"It means..." Akane traced the diagonal line between Akari's picture and her own with her right hand. As she did so, she once more took note of the blue and silver ring on her finger. She looked over to the red and silver one hanging from Ranma's neck, then up to the red and golden haired girl's beautiful blue eyes. She smiled and leaned forward, giving a quick and very passionate kiss to one of her two absolutely gorgeous girlfriends. "What it means," she said as she pulled back from the kiss, her smile growing even wider, "is that tonight, we need to make a trip back to that jewelry shop. I think a green one and a yellow one would be just perfect, don't you?"