Note: Ranma will be referred to in he/him pronouns regardless of form!

'Stupid Akane.

No. I'm sorry.

I'm the stupid one.'

Ranma opened his eyes groggily, feeling as if he had been turned inside out. His vision felt spotty and it took a second to adjust to his surroundings. He could make out a figure, charging towards him.

"Haaaah!"

It was Akane, donned in her yellow gi, her fist held out towards Ranma. Most notably, Akane's hair was long and flowing behind her.

Upon seeing that, Ranma instantly knew he was in a dream.

'That's right. I much prefer it when you hit me when you get mad, Akane. Just hit me and don't be upset with me anymore. I'm an idiot when it comes to communicating with you.'

Ranma closed his eyes, letting dream Akane continue to charge at him.

Dream Akane would hit him, and then Ranma would wake up and apologize to real life Akane. She would relieve her anger at him, and then they would get along again (if you could call it getting along), and the cycle would continue, as it always did.

Except…when dream Akane hit her, Ranma felt as if a hammer had collided with his face. Feeling very much real pain, he went flying into the wall, hearing a smack as something hard collided with the wall. Ranma then crumpled onto the floor, catching a glimpse of a concerned looking dream Akane running over to him.

"Ranma? Oh gosh, I'm so sorry! Are you–are you okay?" dream Akane shouted, looking teary-eyed and panicked.

"Stupid…Akane," Ranma breathed out, reaching a weak finger out towards her. He wanted to wipe her tears from her eyes. "I should…be the one…apologizing."

Dream Akane kneeled over, leaning in closer with her ear. "What did you say? Are you okay?"

Then, the world went black.

Ranma came to, he could hear voices.

"Akane, what happened?"

"I'm sorry, Kasumi! We were having a sparring match in the dojo earlier. She kept dodging me, I-I had no idea I would actually hit her!"

"Oh Akane… Your violence knows no bounds, even for our guests. How admirable."

"Nabiki, stop it! I didn't mean to!"

"Oh look, Mr. Saotome is bringing something over."

"Saotome, what are you…?"

There were a series of gasps that erupted from the room as scalding hot water hit Ranma's head, waking him up with a jolt. "That's HOT!" he yelled, shooting straight up from the floor. He found himself glaring face to face to his old man's furry features.

"THIS IS MY SON, RANMA" Genma raised a sign.

Ranma snatched the teapot from Genma's paw and splashed its remaining contents onto him, causing him to yowl in pain, which turned into a very human cry of pain. " See how that feels, you stupid Pops!"

"What in the world…" he heard Soun mutter.

Ranma turned around, catching sight of the Tendo family staring at him and his old man, clearly stunned and bewildered.

"Look, she's a guy now?!" Nabiki hissed.

"Mr. Saotome is human now?" Kasumi whispered.

Ranma was equally baffled. Why were they acting like they've never met them before?

Before he could speak, Ranma was interrupted by his father shoving his face down into the ground. "We're sorry!" his Pops yelled, before diving into the whole explanation of their curse and Jusenkyo.

Ranma continued to find the whole situation strange. Why was his old man explaining the curse to them again?

Soun cleared his throat after Genma finished the backstory. "Well! Despite the rather… unique situation, the engagement can still go on."

Engagement?

Soun gestured to his daughters. "Pick your fiancée from my three wonderful daughters, Ranma. This is Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane. Kasumi–"

"Fiancée?" Ranma repeated, his mouth working faster than his brain. "Why do I have to pick again? Akane's my fiancée!"

His voice practically echoed throughout the room.

'Akane's my fiancée!'

Everyone's mouths promptly went slack.

Ranma then looked at Akane, like actually looked at her. The youngest Tendo daughter, who had, for the whole time Ranma had turned back into a guy, been creating holes in the ground with her eyes, was now looking back at him, her brown eyes widened with shock. She looked different–her hair was long, reaching far past her back. In fact, this Akane looked more youthful than the Akane Ranma had been talking to just minutes ago.

It was almost… as if he had gone back in time.

He reached into his pocket, cautiously feeling the pendant. It was smashed, likely from the impact earlier when he hit the wall.

This wasn't a dream. Instead of Jusenkyo, the pendant must have brought him to the day of his engagement.

Ranma swallowed a lump down his throat, and cautiously met Akane's eyes again.

Akane, who, after what felt like an eternity, opened her mouth.

"Wait, ME?!"

Note: and there we go! the rewritten first chapter, broken out into two parts. Will I continue to rewrite future chapters? Mayhaps. That is the nature of my indecisiveness, and the beauty of posting work online.

Leave a comment if you be so kind, I get lonely! 3