Ranma 3/2

By: Jaqui K

Chapter 2: Multiple Choice

"Let's start these introductions over, shall we?" said the Tendo father who was apparently named Soun. Everyone was gathered once more in the family room, although it was noticeably less cramped than the last time.

"Yes, my name is Genma Saotome," declared the idiot panda who was back to his regular idiot human form. "And this is my son…" he continued as he gestured to his side.

"Ranma." The dark haired, ponytailed teen who was currently in their old, male body couldn't help but fidget slightly as they sat next to their stupid Pops who put them in this stupid situation in the first place. Sure, they had the perfect plan to get them and their siblings out of this whole stupid thing, but all the Tendos staring right at them wasn't helping. The Soun guy being in a much better mood was not really something they cared about. The sisters were a completely different matter, though.

Kasumi's still very serene and mature expression seemed to also have a mix of confusion and concern underneath, while the grabby one, Nabiki, just looked skeptical. The girl named Akane, however, gave a strong glare like she was trying to see right through Ranma's soul, perhaps trying to find a little pink haired girl hidden within. And she certainly was there. They could feel the apprehension radiating in the back of their mind, which didn't help their nerves at all. Don't worry. I'll make sure to set things right with her for you. Ranma made sure to project their thoughts as hard as possible, hoping it would be able to put their little sister at ease.

"Are you really Kuroma?" Kasumi asked.

"And where's my hunky cash cow?" Nabiki quickly threw in.

Akane took a moment to glare at her sister. "Nabiki, be serious." She then turned her ire right back at Ranma. "Now what did you do with Sakura? I swear if anything happened to her…"

Ranma couldn't help but cringe back slightly while their pops was pretending to be deep in thought. "Hmmm, where should I start?" the man muttered to himself, and Ranma realized he was about to do something stupid. The moment he reached over to grab them, they quickly countered and threw the old man out the door and into the Tendo's garden pond. What popped out of the waters was a giant panda, still wearing Genma's gi and with his glasses hanging off one ear.

Kasumi was the first one to recover enough to respond. "Oh my, he turned into the panda from earlier. Ah, so it wasn't actually animal abuse then. That's a relief."

"That still doesn't explain your whole deal," Nabiki pointed out, "or where the others went."

Ranma didn't respond to that immediately, instead standing on the porch and staring down their pops who was giving as much of a scowl that a panda was capable of.

"Ah, calm down, you old fart. I just saved ya from a three way beat down," Ranma said with arms crossed. Their pops looked for a moment like he was going to retaliate, but then just gave an annoyed grunt and walked past Ranma back into the house and off in the direction of the furo. "Yeah, just go and soak your bald head," they called out to him. "I'll explain what happened. Don't worry, I'll make sure to give you all the respect you deserve." They then sat back down at the table and addressed the Tendos. "Yeah, so our dad is a complete dumbass, but this might be the only good thing he's ever done…"

The old man had been dragging me to these weird training grounds all around China for months with nothing really all that interesting happening, so I figured the last one we went to about three weeks ago would just be more of the same. Way up in the mountains of Qinghai, near Tibet, there's this big valley called Jusenkyo. Even with the name, it didn't really look all that impressive at first. Sure it was kinda pretty with hundreds of different springs and tall bamboo shoots sticking out of them, but as a training ground it seemed really basic. Just fight on the poles and try not to fall in the water, that kind of training, ya know?

The guide for the place was busy giving a big speech about the history of the place and such, but Pops wanted to get right to the action and I followed right after. Maybe if I bothered to listen to the guide, then…but that would mean we wouldn't…so I guess…hmmm…

Um, anyway, me and the old man started our big fight and he still even managed to keep up with me for a few minutes there. Of course, I was able to get the upper hand and knock him down into one of the springs. Now, in my defense, the guide didn't actually explain the curse thing until a panda burst out of the water and back on one of the poles. He said that the pool that I knocked Pops into was the Spring of Drowned Panda, where a panda drowned a whole bunch of years ago. Well, with the word he used, it might have been 'submerged', but he also called it a tragic tale, so I'm guessing the panda didn't make it back then. Um, so yeah, anyone that falls in that spring is cursed to become a panda.

The whole curse stuff and my pops suddenly not being bald anymore in the weirdest way sorta threw me off my game a bit, and I ended up getting hit into one of the pools myself. Honestly, at first I wasn't even sure anything happened at all. I didn't feel any kind of painful transformation, and when I popped up to the surface I could see that I still had my hands and my black ponytail was unchanged. It wasn't until I heard the guide spout out some more stuff about a young girl that drowned around 1500 years ago that I realized something was different, and…well…opening up my gi confirmed it for me.

"Oh my," Kasumi said, interrupting Ranma's story. "That must have been such a shock and discomfort for you to be in a different body. I deeply apologize for making you go on that errand with me instead of allowing you to change back right away."

Ranma quickly waved his hands in a placating manner. "Hey, no need to apologize or nothing. I couldn't have changed back earlier anyway. Um…also…" They took a quick glance in the direction of the furo to confirm that no annoying interruptions were approaching yet. "It's fine. I don't really feel uncomfortable in either form. Being a boy or girl don't really matter all that much to me right now, so you don't have to feel bad about it," they said with a smile.

However, instead of being relieved, Kasumi just looked confused. "I don't understand. How can that not matter to you?"

"Don't really know," Ranma answered with a shrug. "My siblings definitely care bout that stuff, so it's not the curse doing it to me. Guess I've just been too busy taking care of them to worry about it."

"Yeah, speaking of them," Nabiki said, "I couldn't help but notice how they've been missing from your little story so far."

Akane in turn scoffed and crossed her arms. "Not that surprised they weren't taken there. Go figure that a father wouldn't bother to bring his daughters along for training." She then took a moment to give a quick glance over to her own father's direction.

Nabiki gave a scoff of her own in response. "I'm pretty sure that wouldn't stop Akama from joining in anyway. So Ranma, or perhaps that should be Kuroma, what exactly is it that you're not telling us about your siblings?"

Ranma (who was indeed mostly Kuroma, although they could feel the fear and mild bemusement from the others in the back of their mind) gave a nervous laugh at the middle Tendo sister's attitude and started to rub the back of their head again. "Yeah, it's kinda a little complicated, but if you just let me explain everything, I'm sure that-"

Unfortunately, the scrutiny being directed at them meant that they managed to miss their stupid pops sneaking up from behind until they were grabbed by the back of the collar. "Enough stalling, boy. You need to deal with this like a man!" he yelled out as he hurled Ranma like a javelin towards the koi pond.

Right before they struck the water, a thought managed to surface from the back of their mind. Please don't hate me for this.

The first thing Akama was aware of was that he was currently floating underwater. The second was the memory of who was responsible for his current location. The third was that there were a few things that needed to be reconciled immediately.

He took care of the first one while still underwater. The second involved surfacing, right as their older sibling was yelling at their pops how they were getting to that point before they were interrupted. And of course the third thing would be taken care of momentarily as he shook the water out of his short red hair and stepped out of the pond with a dark grin on his face while cracking his knuckles. "Want me to deal with this like a man? Sure thing. I'll start by kicking your dumb-"

Akama's threat wasn't able to finish as his little sister apparently decided to call first dibs, sneaking up behind the old man and kicking him outside right into that stone lantern decoration that had been set back up in its place in the Tendo yard. "Hey, Kuroma was doing just fine explaining things until your dumb ass goes and upsets Aka- I mean, all of our nice hosts." She turned and gave an apologetic look towards the Tendos, mostly towards the youngest one.

Unfortunately, the dumbass hit the lantern head first so of course he ended up being fine. He quickly got up and immediately went into one of his stupid overly dramatic poses. "Oh, the indignity!" he wailed with fake tears going down his face. "That a son would shame his father completely by acting so weak and girly! It's such a-"

His stupid fake rant was thankfully cut off by Kuroma leaping in and kicking him right into the pond, although Akama was forced to dodge out of the way of the flying idiot. "I told you not to say that sort of crap to her!" his older sibling yelled out as they jumped over Akama to continue attacking the now pandafied idiot.

"Dammit, Kuroma," his pink haired little sister complained, "I can fight my own battles!" She then leapt over and joined in on the fight.

Akama grumbled while wringing out the bottom of his shirt as he stepped back onto the Tendo porch and watched his siblings perform a double team beat down on the panda, noting that they would be doing a lot better if they actually coordinated together instead of trying to one up each other. He was about to charge in himself to show the two how to take care of things like a man when the sound of a throat being cleared caught his attention. He turned around to see the Tendo girls and their father all giving him a variety of looks. "Oh. Oh yeah," he said with a small chuckle. "Guess I should finish the rest of the story for you, huh."

"Yeah," the one named Akane said, slamming a hand down on the table in anger. "You can start with explaining why you and your sister were hiding in the koi pond like that and how you were able to stay under there without us noticing. And what was with that flash of light when Ranma, or I guess Kuroma, was thrown in?"

The other Tendos turned their befuddled looks towards the girl, Nabiki adding in a facepalm for good measure. "Little sister, they just got done explaining this whole Jusenkyo curse thing."

"I know that," Akane said defensively. "But he said it was a girl, singular, that drowned, so that wouldn't explain there being three of them."

"Yeah, you ain't wrong there," Akama casually said as he sat back down with his hands interlocked behind his head. "Guess I'll go ahead and skip ahead to the important bit."

This was after me and Pops changed back in the guide's shack. The guy was going on 'bout how the whole curse thing worked. Y'know, cold water change, hot water change back and all. Pops wasn't listening about that and was just yelling about a cure, saying that he wouldn't allow his son to be a weak half girl. Now, I probably don't even need to say it, but obviously that's not true. Having a knockout gorgeous girl's body with an amazing rack doesn't keep me from being the strong manly man that I am, and of course I was able to figure that out right away.

Pops was still being an idiot though and kept threatening the guide about a cure. The guide started to say something about a Spring of Drowned Man and pointed out the window to a vague area of the valley, but also said something about how the exact spot had been lost for ages. Pops didn't bother to hear the whole thing and just grabbed me and dashed out in that direction. I was yelling at the old man and trying to get a good enough angle to deck him, but he was too busy looking at the various ponds. He stopped and gave a shrug, and I was about to ask what stupidity he was up to now when he suddenly chucked me into one of the springs. There was a big flash of light and I found myself all turned around in the water, but the fury at my stupid old man helped me recover super quick and I got back to the surface.

First I checked to see what dumb curse the idiot forced on me this time, but I clearly still had a girl's body. My now loose hair was a bright red, though, and my gi was missing, so I knew something musta happened. The guide caught up and of course asked what my dumbass Pops was doing. The dumbass made some excuse about throwing me into springs until he found the one with the cure. Yeah, that was exactly the kind of plan Pops would come up with. I started to tell him just what I thought of that dumb idea when I realized a girl's voice was copying exactly what I was saying.

I turned to see a familiar looking girl with a black ponytail and wearing an also familiar white gi, who was staring right back at me with confusion. "Wha…who are you?" she dumbly stammered out.

"I'm Ranma Saotome," I very smartly answered back. That's when I recognized the outfit. "Hold on, who are you and what are you doing with my gi?!"

"Hey! I'm Ranma Saotome and this is my gi!" the girl shot back. While we were staring each other down, the guide started another explanation.

"Ah, as you can see, falling into multiple pools is a very bad idea. Sometimes, the new curse will not override the old one and instead they will mix. That is why even though the young customer fell into the SUPER MEGA ULTRA TRAGIC SPRING OF DROWNED TRIPLETS…he is, as you can clearly see, still a girl."

I turned to the guide then back to the girl who kind of looked like me and was wearing my gi and had the same thought I did because we both said the same thing.

"Triplets?!"

We both turned the other direction to find another familiar looking girl with long pink hair who was staring back at us in shock. And she was also…eh, you know what, I think that pretty much explains it.

"I think there's still a couple of details to clear up here, Makkun," Nabiki said as Akama rolled his eyes once more at the stupid nickname. "I don't really know all that much about magic…yet, but I would like to think that magic identical triplets would be a little more, you know, identical. More importantly, where did that outfit come from? I thought it was just the magic, but from how your story went, well…"

"Nah, we just got a matching set over in China. Also mastered the Quick Change technique really quick too. Wasn't a big fan of suddenly showing my bare ass in public whenever a freak rainstorm happens." Akama looked down and tugged at his still damp shirt. "Probably should have waited to put this on after I was out of the water, though."

"Oh, so you're fine with showing your bare chest in public?" the Akane girl asked with an overly accusing tone.

Akama flashed an amused smirk at the dark haired girl. "What's the matter, never seen a guy shirtless before?" He blinked as a memory from earlier in the day hit him. "Oh, oh right, you did."

Akane growled and leaned forward on the table. "Yeah, and I'm still mad about that."

"The heck do you have to be mad for? You still had your gi on," Akama pointed out.

"And you walked out on me naked!" Akane shot back.

Before he could respond back, his head was pushed down by Kuroma leaning an arm on him from behind.

"First off, I had a towel on," they said. "Second, why were you in the changing room in the first place?"

"Hey, this is my house, and I had a rough workout today!" Akane said.

Akama forced his head back up just enough to give a big grin. "Ha, I knew it! Good on ya, Sis." He was then pushed back down as Kuroma leaned in more towards Akane.

"That didn't answer my question," they said.

Akane moved her glare towards the person next to her. "Well, someone told me that the bath was open."

"Hey, in my defense, I didn't know about this whole curse stuff," Nabiki said with a shrug before crossing her arms. "See if I ever try to do something nice for you again."

"W-what do you mean by that?" Akane asked, now leaning back slightly with a tinge of red in her cheeks..

"Wait, what does she mean by-" Kuroma was cut off by Sakura landing on their head and pushing them down on Akama.

"Yeah, see, it was all just a dumb misunderstanding, so how about we all move on and not get mad at anyone, huh?" she said with a big smile.

Akane looked over at the pink haired girl and her face turned even more red. Before she could give a reply, her father gave a big laugh and apparently decided to actually join in on the conversation.

"Ah, so it seems this curse business isn't so bad after all," he said while standing up and taking the big tea kettle that was on the table. He then walked over to the unconscious panda that had been dropped onto the porch earlier, pouring out the boiling water which simultaneously transformed him back and woke him up with a loud yelp.."So, hot water will turn you back into a man."

"Yes, but it doesn't have to be that hot," the elder Saotome growled out to his old friend, even though he definitely deserved it.

The Tendo father didn't seem to pay attention to the complaint as he immediately went over to the pile of Ranmas. "And for you, being hit by cold water will turn you into a girl…well, three girls I suppose."

Akama grumbled from the bottom of the pile. "I told ya, I'm a-"

"And hot water will turn you into boys," the Tendo father continued, pouring the steaming water out as Sakura and Kuroma quickly dodged out of the way. Akama wasn't quite as lucky though.

"Gah," he so very manly yelled out while jumping to his feet and rubbing the hot water out of his still red hair. "That's boiling!"

"The mustachioed man blinked and dropped the kettle. "What? But I thought…"

Kuroma stepped forward to explain, "Yeah, we all need to be touching and in contact with hot water to go back to one person."

Akama nodded at that. "Yeah, we can't turn back by ourselves, so don't try that crap again." He internally scowled at the unfairness of it, but a quick glance towards his pink haired little sister reminded him that it was probably for the best. As much as the panda got on his nerves, he didn't actually want to have to commit murder.

The Tendo father for his part looked crestfallen for a moment before quickly cheering back up. "Ah, so only one son then. Oh well, that's not a problem. We'll just go back to the original plan." He put an arm around Kuroma and gestured towards his daughters. "Kasumi, age 19. Nabiki, age 17. Akane, age 16. Pick the one you want and she will be your fiancée."

Akame externally growled. Great, this crap again. I ain't got time for any engagement stuff. He was ready to let his thoughts known, but Kuroma spoke up first again.

"Well, I must admit that although we've only spent a brief time together," the black haired teen said with a strange softness and awe in their voice, "I find that my heart has been fully captured by your eldest daughter."

Several shouts of disbelief along with an "Oh my!" were drowned out by the Tendo father's laughter. "Oh, wondrous day! Then it's decided, Ranma shall be engaged to-"

"Hold that thought for just a moment," the self proclaimed eldest of the siblings quickly interrupted. "We may be split right now, but we're still all equally Ranma, so we all get an equal say in who we decide to marry. Don't you think so?"

The Tendo dad looked a bit confused, but still nodded anyway. "Yes, I…suppose that is true…"

Kuroma gave a big grin, which tipped Akama off that whatever supposed brilliant plan they came up with was starting. "Right. Now Akama, from what I heard you'll be picking Nabiki, right?"

"What the hell are you-oof!" The redhead doubled over from the hard elbow to his guts. Kuroma then leaned in closer to him.

"You are picking Nabiki, right?"

"I…" He looked over to the middle Tendo girl who was giving a strange look right back at him. "I mean, I guess she's pretty cool."

"Just pretty cool?" Nabiki said, crossing her arms. "I think you can do better than that."

"Fine, you're really cool." Akama rolled his eyes again before having to admit, "The way you swindled those basketball guys was kinda awesome."

"Couldn't have done it as easily without you, Makkun" Nabiki responded. "You make a good partner."

"Thanks, Nabiki."

"Boss Nabiki."

"Whatever."

"Oh dear," Kuroma said with a layer of worry added to their voice. "They seem to be getting on so well! Oh, and what about you, Sakura?"

Nabiki was the one who answered in the pink haired girl's place. "Oh, Sakura definitely wants Akane."

Kasumi followed up by putting a hand on her youngest sister's shoulder. "Oh yes, I certainly agree."

"What? Why me?" Akane asked as she looked between her sisters.

"That's easy," Nabiki explained. "You always talk about how much you hate boys."

"Yes," Kasumi added, "and luckily for you, Sakura is clearly the most girl out of the group, isn't that right?"

The pinkette looked to be taken aback by the question for a moment before starting to play with her braid again. "I guess so. And I really did have fun sparring with you in the dojo. Oh, but I…that is, I'm not trying-"

"Oh no!" Kuroma suddenly exclaimed while slapping the sides of their face with their hands. "It looks like we all chose a different girl and can't agree on who to marry!" They then gave a big sigh and dramatically threw up their hands. "Oh well! I guess it can't be helped. I'm really sorry, Mr. Tendo, but it looks like this whole engagement thing is just not going to work out after all."

"Oh no, this actually works out perfectly!" the Tendo father happily proclaimed.

"Right, so I'll guess we'll just…wait, what?" Kuroma blinked and turned to the man in confusion.

"Yes, if you didn't connect with any of my girls or just rejected the whole thing outright, then the engagement would truly have been in danger," he explained. "But, since you clearly are getting along so well with them, then we can simply put the final decision off for a few weeks while you get to know them even better!"

"Uh, that's…" Kuroma blinked again and turned to Sakura, who had a flabbergasted expression, then to Akama, who was giving the biggest death glare he could. "I…guess so?"

Their idiot father then decided to be an idiot again. "No way. We've waited for this long enough." He looked at each of the Saotome teens, ending on Sakura. "You need to stop with this split body nonsense and man up and pick a fiancée already."

Kuroma looked ready to start another brawl which Akama would have happily joined in on. However, the Tendo father got in the way and gave a hearty slap on the back to the old man.

"Now, now, we all still have many, many years ahead of us, so what's another month or so?" he said with a laugh. "It's not like your son getting married is a life or death situation or anything."

"I…" The old man froze up for just a moment, then gave a big laugh of his own. "No, of course not."

"Then there's nothing to worry about!" the Tendo father said reassuringly. "Your son can get to know my daughters in three different ways, and soon the schools shall finally be united!"

"Well, you can just leave me out of this completely," Akane shouted out angrily, "because there's no way I'm ever going to marry that pervert!"

"Oh come on, I thought we were past that," Kuroma complained.

"Yeah, get over it already," Akama threw in. "Heck, even if you weren't wearing your gi back there, it still wouldn't have been that big of a deal. We're pretty used to these bodies by now, so seeing a girl naked isn't a problem for us." He chuckled and turned away with his hands resting behind his neck. "Besides, I can tell even with that frumpy gi of yours that your figure is nowhere near as good as any of ours, so really, what do you even have to be mad a-"

His words of reassurance apparently didn't get through as he was interrupted by some large heavy object being slammed down on top of him. Before he passed out completely, he managed to hear the light chastising from his older sibling.

"I think you might have went just a little too far there, Bro."

Sakura fidgeted slightly as she sat and looked around the quite spacious Tendo guestroom, which was apparently now her room as well as her siblings'. Her father would be sleeping in the downstairs storage closet on Mr. Tendo's insistence. Well, his insistence after Akane's sisters offered their own very convincing insistence on it. Still, even with only three here, there was more than enough room and, for the first time in her existence, enough futons for all of them.

One of these futons was already placed on the floor with the still knocked out Akama laying on his stomach on top of it. Kuroma and Kasumi were busy attending to the redhead while Nabiki was just hanging out next to them.

"I'm really sorry about this," Kuroma said with a sigh. "That plan should have been perfect. I don't know what went wrong."

"It's alright. It was a very nice plan," Kasumi reassured. "Father can just be surprisingly stubborn when he sets his mind on certain things."

"Yeah, so all we have to do is keep with the plan and wear the two down until they finally give up," Nabiki added, "We just need to make sure to play our parts perfectly." As emphasis, she gave a quick pat to one of Akama's upper thighs. Or it may have been his upper thigh. Sakura didn't have the best angle to see and didn't want to dwell too much on it anyway.

Kuroma gave a nod. "You're right. Ranma Saotome never backs down from a challenge, especially when there's three of us." They gave a quick glance and smile in Kasumi's direction. The smile then dropped as they looked towards the floor. "I am a little worried that your sister is gonna screw this up, if she hasn't already."

"Please don't think too harshly about Akane," Kasumi said with a smile. "She's actually very kind and understanding when she's not being a violent thug."

"Oh, well that's good to know," Kuroma said with relief before looking up at Sakura. "And I know we can count on you to do what's needed with Akane."

"Huh?" Sakura looked back in shock. "What does…you want me to…but I…" She felt her face go flush as she quickly stood up and started to leave the…leave her room.

"Hey, just where do you think you're going, young lady?" Kuroma asked in a chiding voice while starting to stand up.

Sakura sighed and stopped at the doorway. "Relax, I'm just going to the bath. I haven't had the chance to get a good soak since…well…ever."

Kuroma gave a sigh. "Sakura, you know that's not…" she started, but Sakura quickly left and rushed down the stairs so she didn't have to hear that lecture again.

It was only when she got to the changing room that she let herself take a breath, although it was mostly through gritted teeth as she undressed and tossed her clothes in the little wicker hamper.

Stupid Kuroma, why don't you mind your own business about who I am.

The memory of Akane in the dojo then flooded into her mind.

"I couldn't stand losing to a boy."

Sakura paused for a moment then let out a huff, grabbing a towel and walking to the furo door. Yeah, and if I really am just part of Ranma, then I would have to be a-

She reached for the door, but it ended up sliding open by itself. Or rather, by the person behind it. Very slowly she looked slightly up to see Akane staring right back at her. "Oh…I…" She quickly jumped back and covered her eyes with both hands, dropping her towel in the process. "I'm sorry! I…I didn't mean…"

She felt a hand being placed on her shoulder and tensed up slightly while still resigning herself to whatever punishment was about to occur. However, the expected throw or strike or nerve pinch didn't happen. Just the hand still resting gently on her shoulder. Confused, Sakura took the risk and uncovered her eyes, looking over to see Akane with a smile on her face, offering the dropped towel with her other hand.

"Hey, it's alright," Akane said gently, "We're both girls after all."

"Oh." Sakura blinked a few times before taking the towel and giving her own smile back. "Yeah, yeah we are." She then quickly went into the furo room, but stopped when Akane spoke up once more.

"Make sure to let your brothers know that they better not ever try to peep on me, or else!"

"Y-yeah, of course," Sakura stammered out before closing the door behind her without turning around.