**********************************************************

Ranma 1/2: Ryouga and Ukyou - Two halves make a whole lot of trouble.
by Mark Doherty (s067350@student.uq.edu.au)


Yep, its one of those 'What if this happened instead fanfics'. This one
mainly focuses on Ryouga, and, to some extent, Ukyou. C&C's are gladly
accepted, but please don't flame me, it's not my account. Being an
'alterniverse', don't be surprised if I've cheated somewhat and
slightly changed some of the characters. This has nothing to do with
the Elseworlds series, although it does steal the concept of altering
history from there.

Most of the characters and situations in this fanfic are the copyright
of Takahashi Rumiko. I deserve to be cursed in the drowned slug spring
for just thinking about using them.

There are some cameos from other series. I get a headache just thinking
about listing them, and finding out who owns them, so let's just say
that they are copyrighted to their respective owners. Please don't sue
me, I am just a poor student with delusions of grandeur.


A few explanations on conventions used in this fanfic:  - The suffix
-chan, when used after someone's name (except in conversation),
  indicates their cursed female form. In conversation, it is a term of
  endearment or familiarity. Nabiki uses it on Kunou to annoy him.

- The suffix -P, or -piglet is used to indicate a person's cursed pig
state.
  (You'll understand why not p-chan when you get there.)

- <> is used to denote people speaking in Chinese.

- ' ' are quotes from people, and lines heard from a crowd.

- {} are words on panda signs.

- [] are thoughts.

- okonomiyaki, if you didn't know, is sort of japanese pizza. Close
  enough a description for here, anyway.


This is, by the way, my first ever fanfic. That means that it's not my
fault, even if it is. It also means that I REALLY want feedback, as
long as it's polite, this is my sister's account, not mine.

There are some random mutterings at the end on why I did what I did in
this fanfic. Please enjoy. PLEASE!!!

One last note. There is a small, very small amount of profanity in this
fanfic. It certainly doesn't insult me, but then again, I am
Australian.  Over here, bastard is a friendly greeting. I'm serious by
the way.  Anyway, one or two swearwords, nothing incredible. Forewarned
is forearmed. (Forearmed is two arms too many. Shoot me. Now.)

**********************************************************

Tendo Soun, a tall thin man in his forties, with long dark hair and
moustache is reading a postcard with a picture of a panda on the front.
It reads :

Tendo-
     Returning from China with Ranma and another student.
								     -Saotome

Soun is crying tears of joy. "At last our two families will be joined !
I must tell my daughters."

A while later, Kasumi, the eldest girl who has long brown hair, Nabiki,
middle child with shoulder length dark brown hair, and Akane, the
youngest girl, who has long dark hair face Soun.

"Fiance?" Akane asked.

"Yes. The son of a very good friend of mine. The son's name is Saotome
Ranma.  We hope to unite our two martial arts schools through
marriage.

"Don't we have any say in who we marry?" Akane asked.

"Hey, you should at least wait and see if he's cute." Nabiki said.

***********************************************

It has just stopped raining in the streets of Nerima. A red haired,
pig- tailed girl dressed in black pants and a red Chinese shirt is
running down a street. She is being chased by a large panda. Following
the panda is another girl who has shaggy reddish brown hair which is
held by a yellow bandanna with black stripes. She is wearing a yellow
shirt and black pants which are tied at the shins. The bandannaed girl
wears a huge backpack, on top of which rests a bamboo umbrella. She is
also carrying a backpack in each hand.

The red haired girl looks over her shoulder as she continues to run.
"No way pop! I can't believe you did this to me! We're going back to
China, and you're not stopping us!"

The panda growled in reply as the bandannaed girl piped up. "Slow down
will you? We can all do with a few days rest. I want to go back to
China too, but right now I'd like to sleep in a dry futon much more."

The redhead sighed, then slowed down. "Alright, alright! I guess we can
afford a couple days rest."

The panda used the girl's slowing down to its advantage by finally
catching up to her and tagging her across the back. The girl skidded
out into the middle of a street, where a crowd was forming. The girl
turned to the oncoming panda, dropping into a fighting stance. "All
right, if that's the way you want to play it pop."

The panda responded by standing up on its hindlegs and adopting a
fighting stance similar to the one the pigtailed girl had adopted. The
bandannaed girl skidded to a halt near the two, an exasperated look on
her face.  "Will you two quit it? I WANT a HOT bath, and the longer you
two take, the longer it will be before I can get it !" When this girl
talks, it is apparent that she has fangs, which serve to make her look
quite cute.

The other two ignored her, and began to fight. After a flurry of blows,
the girl managed to knock the panda backwards into a street sign. The
panda lay where it fell, seemingly down for the count. "Heh, now that
that's settled, I'm leaving for China." the girl said, turning from the
panda.

Only to be belted over the head with an umbrella that the bandannaed
girl is now holding, having placed the packs she was carrying on the
ground.  The bandannaed girl caught the pigtailed girl as she slid to
the ground, unconscious. "I'm sorry about this buddy," she said "but
like I said, I don't have time for you two to argue, and I REALLY want
a hot bath." She turned to the panda, who was shooing the crowd away,
apparently it had not been as hurt as it had pretended. "So where is
this place then sensei?" she asked, her voice making sensei sound more
like a curse than a name of respect.

The panda gruffled in reply, and held up a sign that said {It's around
here somewhere.}

"If you say so." the girl replied dubiously. "Here, you can carry
Ranma.  I'll get the packs." She gave the unconscious girl to the
panda, and, after resecuring her umbrella into her own backpack, picked
up all the packs.

"You know," the bandannaed girl remarked conversationally to the panda
as she walked back to her companions, "I can't believe how quickly the
rain comes around here. I didn't even have time to get my umbrella
out."

The panda, which had shouldered the unconscious girl, nodded in
agreement.

***********************************************

The Tendos have apparently just finished having the conversation about
the Saotomes when they hear a knocking at the front door.

"Ah! That must be them now!" Soun bubbles as they all go to the front
door.  Soun opens the door to reveal the bandannaed girl, who is
waiting for the panda, which is carrying a kicking pigtailed girl.

"Ranma! Its so good to see you! You'll make a fine husband for one of
my girls!" Soun blurts as he hugs the bandannaed girl. He is about to
continue his speech when he notices something very wrong about the
person he is holding. He releases his hug to get a better look at the
person he was embracing.

Nabiki walks over to look at the person Soun is hugging, and says "I
don't think *he* will make a very good husband." She pokes the girl in
the breast.

The bandannaed girl flares. "Don't poke me there!"

Soun starts to go into a full blown wail. "Waaah! Ranma's a girl! Now
we will never be able to unite our two families!"

"Wait! Wait!" the bandannaed girl shouts, waving her arms. "I'm not
Ranma!"

Soun stops his crying, and looks at the girl with renewed hope on his
face.  "You're not?"

Akane harumphes, and then says "Of course she's not Dad. You can really
leap to ridiculous conclusions sometimes."

The bandannaed girl smiled. "Yes, I'm not Ranma." She turns and points
to the pigtailed girl, who has finally been put down by the panda at
the front porch.  "That's Ranma."

"Umm.... hi there." Ranma-chan said, her hand on the back of her head.

"Waaahhh!" Soun replied.

***********************************************

Akane stared at the new arrivals with mixed feelings. On the one hand,
she was feeling better now, since there was obviously not going to be
any engagement.  On the other hand, she was feeling sorry for the two
girls who had arrived with the panda, which they claimed was Mr
Saotome. Nabiki had been a bit rude to both of them, she had poked
Ranma's chest as well, just to make sure that she was female, as if it
wasn't already obvious.  Now both of the new arrivals were staring
around, obviously embarrassed, as Soun and the panda had a private
conversation. (The panda was literate, using signs to talk, which leant
credence to the two girls assertions that this was Ranma's father. Now
if only they'd say why he was dressed up in a convincing panda suit.)

Akane decided to take pity on the girls, and so she walked over to them
and said "So I hear that you've studied Kempo Ranma?"

"Um.. A little bit." the redhead replied. "Ryouga here keeps me on my
toes as a sparring partner, so I have to know a little of everything to
keep winning."

"Keep winning?" the girl with the bandanna asked incredulously. "I
think you've got that turned around Saotome. Its me that keeps
winning."

"Yeah right." Ranma-chan snorted.

"Anyway," Akane interjected, "I was wondering if the two of you would
like to have a little sparring match in the dojo?"

"I don't know..." Ranma-chan said hesitantly.

Ryouga-chan looked over at the two fathers energetic conversation
(where did Mr Saotome get all those signs from?), and said "Give me a
break, Ranma.  Would you prefer to sit around here getting bored and
being fondled by that girl again? Besides, we are guests in this house,
and you should not refuse such a simple request."

Akane blushed in embarrassment at her sister's actions, as Ranma-chan
sighed and nodded.

"Ok. I guess it can't hurt." Ranma-chan said.

***********************************************

Akane had tried talking to the other girl, Ryouga, while they made the
trip to the dojo, but she seemed to be incredibly shy, stuttering her
answers to Akane's questions. Akane found it curious. After all, Ryouga
definitely wasn't that shy when talking to Ranma, so why was she around
her? [Maybe she's just shy around strangers.] Akane mused as they
entered the dojo.

Akane faced off with Ranma-chan in the dojo while Ryouga-chan leaned
against one of the dojo's walls. Akane dropped into a fighting stance
while Ranma-chan stood and waited, her hands behind her back. Akane
attacked, starting with a series of kicks, which Ranma-chan easily
leapt over. Akane kept up the barrage with a set of punches, none of
which were hitting her target, as she would glide out of the path of
the oncoming punches with time to spare.

Akane was getting frustrated, both at her inability to hit, and at this
girls strange... and insulting reluctance to hit back. "What's wrong?"
she asked.  "Why don't you swing at me?"

She attacked again, but still failed to score any hit. Ranma-chan was
still evading her blows with apparent ease.

Akane thought [What is it with her defences, is she reading my moves?
Well, let's see her dodge me when I'm doing it... for real !]

She lets fly with another punch, this time putting everything she has
into it.  Ranma-chan barely evades her approaching fist by leaping over
Akane.  As Akane's fist drove a hole into the dojo wall, Ranma-chan
tapped Akane from behind as she completed her leap. Ryouga-chan shook
her head in disbelief. "Baka." she muttered to herself, referring to
Ranma, not Akane.  The two combatants stared at each other for a moment
before Akane started to laugh.

"You're good." Akane said. "Good thing you weren't a boy after all."

Ranma-chan looked a bit confused. "Why?" she asked.

"I'd really hate to lose to a boy." she replied.

Akane turned and left the dojo. Ryouga-chan and Ranma-chan turned to
look at each other, but said nothing as they follow her out.

***********************************************

Ryouga settled down opposite to Ranma in the hot bath with a sigh. "Its
good to have the time to relax and enjoy a hot bath."

"Its good to be male again." Ranma replied.

"Yes." Ryouga agreed. He looked at Ranma curiously. "So what are you
going to do about this engagement business?"

"What can I do?" Ranma retorted. "Honour demands that I go through with
it."

"Still, they all seem nice enough." Ryouga continued. "Especially
Akane."

"Mmmm." Ranma replied. "I guess we should go out like this. They are
going to find out sooner or later anyway."

"I guess they will, but....." Ryouga said, hesitating.

Ranma sighed. "Look, I know you don't want anyone finding out about the
curse. I can understand that. Believe me, I can. But Pop will be
telling them anyway, if he's managed to get some hot water. You can't
hide it from everyone."

"But its just so embarrassing." Ryouga said.

Ranma nodded in sympathy.

Ryouga decided to broach another subject. "By the way, what the hell
were you doing in that sparring match?" he asked, a little angrily.

Ranma looked at Ryouga quizzically. "What do you mean? She asked to
spar, so I sparred."

"Treated her like a bloody fool is more like it." Ryouga retorted. "You
could have at least looked like you were trying to fight her, you
idiot."

"Why are you so interested, Ryouga? Not getting jealous are ya?"

"Of what?" Ryouga snorted. "You just met her, same as me. So far
there's nothing to be jealous of. Besides..." he muttered, suddenly
turning gloomy, "...what girl would go for a freak like me?"

Ranma sighed. [Man, he can be depressing.] he thought to himself. [Best
way to get him out of this funk is to make him angry.] He grinned,
saying "Well, if the girls don't go for you, there's always the guys."

Ryouga's face quickly darkened. "Raaannmmmaa... how many times do I
have to tell you, DON'T EVER BRING THAT UP AGAIN !" With that he stood,
getting into an attack ready position.

Ranma also stood, dropping into a defensive position. His grin was
threatening to split his face.

***********************************************

Akane entered the ante-room of the bath, where the laundry basket was
placed. As she undressed, in preparation for a nice bath, she began
thinking to herself.

[This engagement thing is so ridiculous. I can't understand how Daddy
ever arranged this. Why did Mr Saotome never tell him that he had a
daughter, and not a son? Still, its going to be nice having a couple of
girls around here with the same interests as me. They both seem really
nice, and the best thing is, we can practice our martial arts
together.]

Having stripped off, Akane draped a towel over her shoulders and opened
the door to the bathroom. She stopped dead in her tracks as she saw two
naked boys standing in the bath. When the boys heard the door open,
they had turned to face her, giving both Akane and the boys an eyeful
of each other.

The silence stretched as, for several seconds, Akane looked at Ranma
and Ryouga, and they looked back. Finally, Ryouga couldn't take it
anymore.  His nose gushed blood and he fell back into the pool,
unconscious.

Akane broke out of her frozen state. She backed out of the room,
closing the door as soon as she was clear. She leaned against the door
for a few seconds, holding her heart to her chest. A look of furious
anger slowly spread across her face. She grabbed one of her gis from
the clothes pile, put it on, then ran out, screaming "Aaaahhh! There
are perverts in the bath!"

Kasumi, Nabiki, Soun, and a heavyset man with glasses (who had been
sitting opposite Soun as both cried over old memories) rushed out to
see what was happening. They saw Akane starting to head back to the
bathroom, the Tendo family sword in her hand.

"Akane? What's wrong?" Nabiki asked as they followed her up.

"There are two perverts in the bathroom! I'll kill them!" Akane raged.

"Odd, I thought Ryouga and Ranma were in the bath." Kasumi said.

"There's a simple answer to all this." the heavyset man said.

"Excuse me, who are you anyway?" Nabiki asked.

"This is Saotome Genma, my old friend." Soun answered.

They arrived outside the bathroom to find Ranma and Ryouga standing in
the hallway, dressed in the same clothes they had been wearing as
girls.  Ryouga was still looking a bit woozy.

"Who are you two?" Akane asked, holding the sword in front of her.

Ranma answered, looking very embarrassed. "Um... I'm Ranma, and this is
Ryouga. Sorry 'bout this."

"Gak." agreed Ryouga, his mind still in half shutdown mode.

***********************************************

In the Tendo family dining room, Mr Saotome, Ranma, and Ryouga were
sitting down opposite the Tendos. Ryouga had finally recovered, but he
was still blushing furiously. Akane was staring angrily at both of the
boys, and Ranma was looking uncomfortable.

"Lets start again." Genma said. "This, " he pointed to Ranma, "is my
son, Ranma. That, " he pointed to Ryouga, "is his friend, and my
student, Hibiki Ryouga."

"How can that be? They were definitely girls before." Nabiki said.

"Ah, how can I best explain this...." Genma said, pausing thoughtfully.
He stood, grabbed Ranma and Ryouga by their arms, and threw them both
into the pond outside.

The water bubbled for a couple of seconds before Ranma-chan and
Ryouga-chan burst out, looking angrily at Genma.

"What did you do that for?" Ranma-chan asked angrily.

"You didn't have to throw me in as well, you useless furball!"
Ryouga-chan shouted.

"Now they're both girls!" Kasumi exclaimed.

"Oh the tragedy! To see my son, and a student who trusted his training
to me, act so badly." Genma wailed. "You two were willing to give your
lives to martial arts, so you should accept this burden."

The two girls jumped back into the house. Ranma-chan tripped Genma,
while Ryouga-chan used that opportunity to throw the off-balance Genma
into the pond. Moments later, the panda that had been seen before
emerged, its glasses hanging off one ear, tattered clothes hanging from
its frame.

"Our life is one thing." Ryouga-chan snarled.

"Yeah, but our manhood is another." Ranma-chan added.

"Damn you for taking us to a place when you can't read the Chinese
warnings!"  Ryouga-chan added, shaking her fist at the panda.

"You have some interesting friends Daddy." Kasumi noted.

"They weren't like this. Not before China, anyway." Soun said.

++++++++++++++++++++++ (Flashback:

Genma, Ranma, and Ryouga (who are all dressed in white gis, and are
carrying backpacks) are standing next to a short fat man dressed in
Chinese communist clothes. In front of them stretches a plain dotted
(more like filled) with hundreds of small springs. Several bamboo poles
jutted from each of the springs, rising high above the waters.

"...legendary springs of Jusenkyo." the fat man, a guide, was saying.
"Each one of over hundred springs have tragic legend. Is not used
anymore because it is too dangerous."

The three martial artists shucked their packs. Genma took out a rope
and quickly tied it between Ranma's left wrist and Ryouga's right.

"What's this for?" Ryouga asked, holding up his tied wrist.

Genma answered as he leapt onto a bamboo pole. "I want you two to learn
how to fight as a team. That rope forces you to act together. Now come
on, and don't expect me to go easy on you."

"Yes Pop." said Ranma, as Ryouga said "Hai." They jumped onto adjacent
poles, facing Genma.

"Aiya! Wait, honourable customers!" the guide shouted. "Have not heard
full story of legend yet! Very bad if you fall in spring!"

The three combatants ignored the guide. Genma leapt into the air,
shouting a battle cry, as Ranma and Ryouga leapt silently to intercept
him. Genma aimed a kick at Ranma, who blocked it with one of his own
legs. As Genma was occupied attacking Ranma, Ryouga, who had jumped
low, grabbed Genma's other foot and threw the martial arts master into
the spring below them.

Ranma landed easily on another pole, while Ryouga had to grab a pole
with his hand and then use his incredible strength to flip himself up
onto it. He got into a ready position similar to Ranma's as Ranma
looked down at the pool, which was bubbling.

"Are we done?" Ranma asked.

Suddenly, a large form burst from the pole and landed on a pole near
Ryouga.  It was a large panda, although its human-like attack ready
posture indicated something more.

Ranma pointed to the panda, looking at the guide. "What..."

"...the hell..." Ryouga added, awed.

"...is that?" Ranma finished, almost hysterical.

"Aiya!" the guide answered. "Mr Customer fall in spring of drowned
panda.  Tragic story, very tragic, of panda that drown there two
thousand year ago!  Now, whoever fall in spring take body of panda!"

"You never said anything about that!" Ranma shouted.

The panda leapt at the author of its humiliating defeat, Ryouga. Ryouga
was too shocked to move, so he didn't block the panda's swipe. Ryouga
rocketed off, soon followed by Ranma as the rope attaching the two
pulled taut. Both screamed as first Ryouga, then Ranma, fell into the
same spring.

"Oooh!" the guide screamed again. "Now you two fall in spring of
drowned girl.  Tragic story, very tragic, of girl who drown there
fifteen hundred years ago."

Ryouga-chan and Ranma-chan stand up. They both open their gis to see
their new female attributes. Ranma-chan screams as Ryouga-chan faints,
a slight trickle of blood coming out of her nose.

) ++++++++++++++++++++++

"Ah, I see." said Soun. He pulled out a tea kettle and poured boiling
hot water over the panda. "So hot water turns you back."

"Well, it needn't be that hot!" Genma said, back in human form, as he
looked at the scalds the water had given him.

"Your problem isn't so terrible after all." Soun said as he patted
Ranma-chan on the back. He pointed to Kasumi, "My daughter Kasumi.
Nineteen.". Then, he pointed to Nabiki, "And Nabiki. Seventeen.".
Lastly, he pointed to Akane, "And Akane. Sixteen. Pick the one you
want. She's your fiance."

"Oh, he wants Akane." Kasumi quickly said.

"Definitely." Nabiki agreed.

"Me? Marry that pervert? Never!" Akane cried.

"Well, you hate boys, don't you?" Nabiki asked.

"So you're in luck, he's half-girl." Kasumi added.

"Whaddya mean pervert?" Ranma asked Akane angrily.

"You looked at my body, pervert. You both did." she said, looking first
at Ranma-chan, then at Ryouga-chan.

"Hah, they sound like a married couple already!" said Soun as he and
Genma started laughing.

"He's a couple in himself!" Akane shouted.

"Aw, that does it. Come on Ryouga." Ranma-chan said as she headed for
the door.

"What?" Ryouga-chan said. He had been in her own dream world, depressed
by some of Akane's insults to Ranma, which applied to her as well. [She
thinks I'm a pervert.] she thought gloomily.

"You've had that hot bath you wanted. Let's go back to China and try to
find a cure."

Ryouga-chan looked sadly at Akane before saying "Yes. We are obviously
not wanted here."

Ranma-chan turned to Akane as Ryouga-chan joined her. "And by the way,
you had a pretty good look at us as well. I've seen myself and Ryouga
naked plenty of times, so its no big deal. Besides, I'm better built."

The world went black for Ranma-chan and Ryouga-chan as Akane belted
them over the head with the table.

"Now that, he had coming." Genma noted.

"You know Akane, every time you insulted Ranma you insulted Ryouga."
Kasumi noted. "I think he was pretty hurt by it."

"Hmph. Serves him right. He was peeking as well." Akane muttered.

***********************************************

Ranma-chan groaned as she woke up.

"Ah, you're awake." said Kasumi. "You'll have to forgive Akane. She's a
very nice girl, she's just a violent maniac."

Ryouga-chan was already up, rubbing the back of her head. She looked at
Ranma-chan and grimaced. "You can have her." he said simply.

Ranma-chan sighed as she went off to the bathroom to change back into a
guy.  Ryouga-chan didn't follow, she was too busy massaging her aching
head.

Ryouga-chan raised her head when she heard a gigantic slapping sound
come from the direction of the bathroom.

"Oh! Did I forget to tell Ranma that Akane was in the bathroom?" Kasumi
asked innocently.

***********************************************

It was morning in the Tendo residence. Ranma was sitting opposite Genma
in the guest room. "So I have ta go to school, huh?" Ranma asked.

"Well, we will be staying here a while. I've already told Ryouga."
Genma answered.

Nabiki, dressed in a school uniform, poked her head in the door. "You
two will be going to the same school Akane and I go to. I think I'll
take Ryouga this morning."

Ranma walked up to Nabiki and whispered something to her.

She looked at him strangely for a moment and then said "Really? He
really does that?" Ranma nodded. "Ok. I'll be careful. Thanks for the
warning."

Nabiki walked downstairs, where she had left Ryouga. Akane rushed up to
her, saying "Nabiki! Wait, I'll walk to school with you."

Nabiki turned to Akane and said "Oh? Don't you think you should walk to
school with Ranma? He is your fiance, after all."

Akane gave Nabiki a dirty look.

***********************************************

Nabiki and Ryouga walked towards school. Ryouga had done his best to
dress for school. He was wearing his usual pair of black trousers, tied
at the shins. He had managed to find a white shirt in his belongings,
so he was wearing that instead of his preferred yellow ones. He had
decided to forego his umbrella, but he was still wearing his usual
bandanna. Doomsday could come and go and he would still wear that
bandanna. He was carrying a knapsack; not anywhere near as big as his
backpack, but it was still unusually large and looked suspiciously
full.

Nabiki, not one to keep her curiosity bottled up, finally asked him a
question she had wanted him to answer since they had left the house.
"Hey, Ryouga..." she began.

Ryouga started out of his reverie. He had been thinking about what
school was going to be like. He hadn't really attended since he had
left with Ranma on the ill-fated China trip. He was pretty nervous.
After all, he knew that his social skills were somewhat stunted from
years of lonely wandering, and then being in the company of only Ranma
and Genma. Not that he would admit to anyone else that he was afraid of
saying or doing something wrong. Its just that Ryouga had led a lonely
life. Ranma was the only friend he really had.  Ryouga was hoping that
he could make some friends at this school. Hell, acquaintances would
do. People who didn't attack him on sight would be fine as well. He
wanted things to go well today, but he felt sure that something,
anything was going to go wrong and ruin it, and that something would
probably be his curse. He could hear it now: 'You turn into a girl?
What sort of pervert are you? Keep away from him.' and so on. He had to
hide his curse.  He was sure of that. The only question was, how long
could he do it for?  Sighing, he put such questions aside for the
moment, and responded to Nabiki.  "What is it Nabiki?"

"Why is your pack bulging like that? What did you put in it?"

"Oh, just emergency supplies." Ryouga answered absently.

"Emergency supplies? What sort of emergency supplies?" Nabiki asked,
slightly puzzled.

"Lets see.... food, matches, small tent..."

"You're taking a tent to school?"

Ryouga hated this. He could admit to himself that he had a direction
problem, but he found it incredibly hard to admit it to anyone else,
even someone like Ranma, who knew full well he couldn't find his way
out of a paper bag. The only way out of this conversation was to admit
to the truth. Or to start a fight, but that wouldn't be right, Nabiki
didn't appear to know any martial arts. "I sometimes.... get the urge
to go on short trips. The stuff is just in case I do."

"Oh, you mean your terrible sense of direction. Ranma warned me about
that."

"He what?!?" Ryouga flared. How dare Ranma tell people about this?

"He warned me before we left this morning that if I didn't keep an eye
on you you'd get lost."

"How dare he..." Ryouga growled. He stopped talking, thought for a
moment, then said "Fine, I'll.... talk... to him about this after
school."

[Well, now that that's out of the way, its time to get some more
important information out of you.] Nabiki thought. She had volunteered
to take Ryouga to school for two reasons. Firstly, it was so that Ranma
and Akane would not have a third party on their trip to school. She'd
have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that particular little
journey. The second reason she took Ryouga was so that she could find
out more about him and Ranma. After all, they were going to be
freeloading it about the dojo, and so she had to get some sort of
profit out of them. That meant she had to know more about them, what
made them tick. Ryouga looked to be the one to milk. "So..." she began,
"...tell me about yourself and Ranma."

***********************************************

Ryouga felt like he had just gone through a very long, very difficult
fight where he was the loser. Never had he been asked so many questions
in such a short space of time. He almost cried out in relief when he
saw the school gates in the distance. Unfortunately for him, it was at
that moment that he was splashed with water, triggering the change.

"Oh ! I'm sorry !" a woman cried out from a second storey window above
them.  "I was watering my plants..." she points to some plants in pots
on the window sill, "and I slipped. I'm really very sorry." With that,
she ducked back into her house, closing the window behind her.

"Great." Ryouga-chan muttered. "I knew something like this was going to
happen. What am I going to do now?"

"I'm sure I could arrange something, for a price." Nabiki answered as
she looked at her watch. Time was running out if she wanted to get her
usual business dealings done before school started.

"I'm broke." Ryouga-chan answered irritably.

Nabiki thought about it for a moment, then said "Ah, what the hell.
I'll help you out. Consider it payment for the information you've given
me on this little trip. Come on." She grabbed Ryouga-chan's wrist and
began dragging her to school.

"What are you doing? Where are we going?" Ryouga-chan asked as she was
pulled along.

"You'll see." Nabiki answered.

***********************************************

Ranma-chan looked down at her wet clothes in disgust. Some old lady had
just splashed her, for no apparent reason. "Well, " she said, "I guess
I'd better go take a hot bath."

"You'll be late." Akane said.

"Think I want to start school as a girl?" Ranma-chan asked.

"All you need is hot water, right?" Akane asked. She started walking
off.  "Come on."

Ranma-chan shrugged her shoulders and followed Akane.

***********************************************

Ryouga-chan waited patiently beneath a tree for Nabiki to return. She
had left her there, telling her to wait until she got back. [I wonder
where she went to.] Ryouga-chan pondered idly. [Maybe she went to the
home economics room to get the hot water.] She glanced at the clock
tower. [She'd better hurry, school starts in a few minutes.]

>From her vantage point she could see both the school buildings and the
entrance to the school. She noticed a rather sizeable portion of the
male population of the school gathering near the gates, as if they were
waiting for something. They were all garbed in varying types of
sporting or fighting outfits, such as karate gis, boxing uniforms, and
so on. [What the hell is all that about?] Ryouga-chan wondered to
herself.

A couple of the school boys noticed her and walked over to her. One of
them, a short boy with oily black hair who was dressed in a karate gi
addressed her.  "Hey there, nice outfit. Makes you look like a real
babe."

Ryouga-chan snarled. She was _not_ in the mood for this. She would
_never_ be in the mood for this. "Go away before I break every bone in
your body." she stated simply.

The oily guy snorted as his companion, who was dressed as a hockey
goalie, laughed. "Yeah, sure, whatever you say. You look like you're
new around here.  You maybe want to catch a movie sometime, maybe go on
a date?"

Ryouga-chan picked up a rock that had been lying near her. It was only
slightly smaller than her fist. "No," she growled as she slowly crushed
the rock in her right hand, "I don't think that maybe I do."

The two boys gulped and started backing up. "O... Ok." the oily boy
stammered.  "I can see this isn't the best time. Maybe later?"

"Maybe not." Ryouga-chan growled back. The two boys scampered off to
join the group milling about the gate. [That I didn't need.] she
thought to herself.  [Bad enough I have to have this form, but idiots
like that manage to make it worse.]

Ryouga-chan sighed in relief as she saw Nabiki heading towards her. She
stiffened slightly when she realised that Nabiki wasn't carrying
anything, meaning that she hadn't brought any hot water. "I don't get
it." Ryouga-chan said as Nabiki arrived. "Where's the hot water?"

"I don't think you appreciate how hard it is to get hot water on short
notice around here." Nabiki replied. "Maybe if I had some more time I
could have arranged it, but the best I could do was...."

Ryouga-chan felt a small knot form in the pit of her stomach. She
hadn't known Nabiki very long at all, but she had the feeling that
Nabiki wasn't the sort to pause like that normally. "Was?" she
prompted.

"Was to register you as a girl." Nabiki continued.

"What?!?" Ryouga-chan screamed, waving her arms. "Are you insane? Is
this your idea of 'fixing things'?"

"Calm down, calm down." Nabiki said, placatingly. "I just told them
that the records were wrong and that you were a girl instead of a boy.
I'll just fix it tomorrow. All you have to do from now on is bring a
thermos of hot water and you won't have to worry about this sort of
thing happening."

"Calm down?" Ryouga-chan asked incredulously, her voice still loud.
"Fix it tomorrow? Why can't you fix it now? Or at lunch time? I'll be
able to get hot water at lunch time surely?"

"Ryouga, Ryouga, you're not thinking. You say that you want to keep
your curse a secret but you want to change back at lunch time? Don't
you think that people are going to get suspicious when a girl goes to
lunch and its a boy who comes back?"

"But why was it so hard to get hot water?" Ryouga-chan half wailed,
half hissed.

Nabiki sighed. [It was so hard because I had better things to do.
Because I had a business to run, people to meet, and didn't have the
time to waste on you. But mostly because I thought it would be funny to
see you go through a day as a girl, especially after the way you flared
up at me yesterday.] "It just was. Look, its only for one day." Nabiki
grinned sardonically. "Just be a man and pretend you're a girl."

A thought struck Ryouga-chan. "But won't people be suspicious when I
turn up tomorrow as a guy, with the same name as the girl from today?"

"Way ahead of you...... Ryoko."

"Ryoko?" Ryouga-chan asked, confused.

"I had a friend in registration change your records so that you're
recorded as being one Hibiki Ryoko, female, age 16. That way you can
use your real name tomorrow and claim that Ryoko was your sister or
something."

[Somewhere there is a god who hates me very much who is laughing at me
right now.] Ryouga-chan thought despondently. "I guess I can do this
for just one day. Anything to keep this curse from becoming common
knowledge." She paused for a second before adding "Or I could just skip
school for the day, come back tomorrow in my true form."

"You can't skip your first day of school." Nabiki replied. [Besides, I
had to use up a favour to get those records changed and I don't like
seeing favours wasted. And it'll be fun to see you get through a day as
a girl.]

"I guess not." Ryouga-chan replied, sighing. "I guess at least nothing
else can go wrong with today."

"Tendo Nabiki! Here to see your lovely sister answer my challenge I
see." The voice belonged to a handsome young man dressed in Kendo
training clothes, sans armour. He had approached the two while they had
been talking. It was only after his greeting to Nabiki that he had a
good look at the girl next to her.  He let loose a small gasp of
astonishment at the sight of the bandannaed girl, dressed in a boys
uniform. "But what vision of loveliness is this beside you?  Tell me,
fair maiden, what is your name?"

[Its times like these I think I should have killed Mr Saotome.]
Ryouga-chan thought.

A slight smile touched Nabiki's lips. "Kunou-chan, I'd like you to meet
Ryoko.  Hibiki Ryoko. She's staying with us at the dojo. Ryoko, this is
Kunou Tatewaki."

"Upperclassman Kunou." Kunou interjected.

"Whatever." Nabiki replied.

Something about what Kunou had said to Nabiki when he arrived occurred
to Ryouga-chan. "Wait a sec... what did you mean about your challenge
to Nabiki's sister?"

"Ah, fair maiden, you need not worry about such matters. Merely wait
here and you shall see my prowess in battle." With that Kunou took
Ryouga-chan's left hand and kissed it. As soon as he had done that, he
turned to Nabiki, saying "I don't suppose you have any more pictures
yet?"

Nabiki wasn't looking at Kunou, she was looking at Ryouga-chan.
"Somehow I don't think pictures of my sister are your greatest concern
right now, Kunou-chan."

"Eh? What do you mean Tendo Nabiki?" Kunou asked, confused. It was then
that he heard a hissing sound from behind him. Turning, he saw
something most people (any with any intelligence) would have run away
from.

Ryouga-chan was furious, even for her. Ice was cold, water was wet,
Ryouga was angry. These were natural states of the universe. Ryouga's
angry was other peoples blind shaking furious rages. Right now she was
pissed. Majorly pissed. [How... dare... he... kiss my... hand.] she
seethed to herself as Kunou turned from her to ask Nabiki a question.
Her face turned a blackish red as an ugly blue aura sprang up around
her. She began to shake from fury as Nabiki said something to Kunou. As
Kunou replied, she thought [He dies, and he dies now.]

Kunou turned back to her, and showed a remarkable lack of survival
skills by saying "Hmm, she must be overcome by my kiss. See how she is
immobile with gratitude." Of course, that was like adding napalm to a
raging fire. Kunou's vision was filled with the sight of an incoming
fist. His head snapped back from the blow. Dazed, he could not avoid
the next blow. Or the next. Or the fifteen that followed it.

Nabiki looked on as Ryouga-chan beat the absolute crap out of Kunou.
[Some people just don't know when to shut up.] she thought to herself.

Eventually Ryouga-chan stopped, panting from exertion. Kunou was a
mangled mess at her feet. She looked down at the bloody pulp that might
have once been human and said "That'll teach you to kiss a guy's hand."

"Don't you think that was a little bit excessive?" Nabiki asked in a
bored tone of voice.

"No. No I don't." Ryouga-chan replied matter-of-a-factly.

"Fair enough." Nabiki replied, shrugging her shoulders. She looked over
at the crowd at the gate, which had surged forwards to meet someone. "I
see the daily goon show has started."

Ryouga-chan looked over at the crowd, which was rapidly dwindling in
conscious members as one of the figures waded into them. "What's that
all about anyway?"

"Well... " Nabiki began, but stopped when she saw that Kunou had
recovered enough to stand.

"Duty.....and ......... love ......... calls." Kunou slurred as he
limped towards the gate.

Ryouga-chan looked at the retreating figure of Kunou with wide eyes.
"He can still walk?" she asked in amazement. "How?"

"Love drives him onwards." Nabiki answered, her voice tinged with
sarcasm.

"I've got to see this." Ryouga-chan murmured to herself as she followed
Kunou.

Nabiki glanced at the clock. "Late again. Oh well, its not as if anyone
is going to do dare do anything to me for it." She followed Ryouga-chan
to get a better vantage point to see the fight.

***********************************************

Ranma looked at Akane as she waded through the boys as they tried to
defeat her. This was just turning into one of those days. First he gets
splashed.  Then, while Akane gets him some hot water at a doctors
place, he meets Dr Tofu, a martial arts master, whom Akane is obviously
in love with. Now, when they finally get to school, he finds half the
male population is here to attack Akane. What was this all about?
Still, she was good, he had to admit.  She had just downed the last of
the attackers, with no injuries to herself.

Akane brushed her hair out of her face, sighing in exasperation. "Every
day.  This is really becoming a drag." She waited impatiently, knowing
full well what was coming next.

A single red rose flopped down several feet from Akane. If the person
who threw it had been planning for it to reach Akane, they had failed
in that aim.  Akane looked at the rose in surprise before looking up at
the person who had thrown it.

Kunou had looked better. He looked like someone had beaten him with a
large blunt instrument (i.e. their fist) several times. His injuries
indicated that that someone had been very angry and very strong.

Kunou swayed on his feet, trying his best to retain consciousness.
Currently he was using his boken as a cane. "T..truly a...
boorish....lot." He managed to slur before his injuries caught up to
him and he collapsed into a heap.

Nabiki walked up to Kunou and rolled her eyes. "Come on Kunou-chan."
she said, sighing, as she dragged the unconscious kendoist to the
nurses office.

Ranma walked up to stand next to Akane, who was looking at the
retreating form of Kunou with astonishment on her face. "So this is
what you have to face every morning, hey?" Ranma asked. "That guy
didn't seem like much of a threat."

"He's not usually like that." Akane replied. "I wonder who did that to
him?"

"That would be me." Ryouga-chan replied. She was leaning against a tree
near the battle. After going berserk with Kunou when he had kissed her
hand, she had followed him out here, fascinated that he could still
move with the injuries he had sustained. Once she had arrived, she had
leaned against the tree to watch the fight, afraid that if she got
involved in such a confusing melee that she might have gotten lost.
Besides, Akane had obviously been more than enough to handle it.

"Ryouga?" Ranma queried, baffled because Ryouga was in female form.
"Why are you a girl?"

"Got splashed on the way, if you can believe that." Ryouga-chan
replied. Ranma took on a been-there-done-that look. "Nabiki said she
wouldn't be able to get hot water in time before classes started, so
she took me to registration and changed it so that the school thinks
I'm a girl. Nabiki said she'd fix it up tomorrow. Just act like I'm a
girl for the rest of the day, and call me Ryoko and maybe I can get out
of this with my secret intact."

"Ryoko?" Ranma asked, trying not to laugh.

"Its only for one day." Ryouga-chan growled. "I can handle this for one
day.  If you call me a boys name, people might eventually find out, so
if you call me Ryoko, my cover isn't blown and its similar enough to my
real name for me to respond."

"You seem to have put some thought into it." Ranma replied dubiously.

Ryouga-chan flushed in embarrassment. "Actually Nabiki suggested it."

"You and 'Ryoko' there can chat later, Ranma." Akane said. "We're late,
remember?" With that, she walked into the school, with Ranma and
Ryouga-chan following her.

***********************************************

Ranma and Ryouga-chan stood in front of the classroom, as Akane sat at
her desk. The teacher began "Well, it seems we have two new students.
Saotome Ranma and Hibiki Ryoko. They've been over in China, but that
doesn't excuse the fact that they, and Tendo Akane, were late. Go stand
out in the hall."

Out in the hall, Ranma, Akane, and Ryouga-chan stood with a bucket full
of water in each hand.

"This is all your fault, you know." Akane accused Ranma.

"Me? It was your fight!" Ranma responded.

"Looked to me like it was Kunou's fault." Ryouga-chan interjected. "He
said that it was his challenge. What was all that about anyway?"

Akane sighed. "Kunou made a speech to the school, saying that anyone
who wanted to date me had to defeat me in combat first. The result is
that half the school's boys attack me every morning."

"That has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard." Ryouga-chan
said.

"And just what do you mean by that?" Akane asked, a dangerous glint in
her eye.

"Oh, come on Akane." Ranma said. "Half the guys after one girl,
especially you? Don't you think that's a little bit strange?"

"Oh, is that so?" Akane answered, lifting one of her buckets
threateningly.

She didn't get the chance to throw it, however. A splash of water
narrowly missed a dodging Ranma. All three turned to see Kunou, an
empty bucket in his hand, and an angry expression on his face. "Never!
Never will I accept your engagement to Akane, Saotome!"

Akane and Ranma were making no-no gestures, but it was too late. The
windows of the school rooms opened and the students within all gathered
up to look at the couple. They began berating the two with questions.
'Engaged?' 'Oh Akane, and you said you didn't like boys.' 'How
romantic!' 'What about you, Ryoko?  Are you single?'

[Well, I guess someone must have told Kunou about this. I wonder who
told him what Ranma looked like?] Ryouga-chan thought as Ranma and
Akane tried to fend off the questions.

"Fight me!" Kunou shouted as he swung his boken at Ranma.

Ranma dodged, and started sprinting down the hall. "This is no place to
fight!" he shouted over his shoulder. "Follow me!"

"I shall!" Kunou shouted as he ran after Ranma.

The entire class, including Akane and Ryouga-chan raced to follow.

"It had to be Nabiki who told him!" Akane shouted to Ryouga-chan. When
she didn't get a response, she turned to look at Ryouga-chan, but
couldn't see her in the crowd anywhere. [Where did he go?] she
thought.

***********************************************

Ryouga-chan walked down a hallway. "Where did everybody go?" she asked
herself. She had lost the crowd following Kunou and Ranma's fight
somewhere along the way. Still, she was still in the school, so luckily
she wasn't lost.

"Ooh, hello there baby." a voice crooned from behind her. Before
Ryouga-chan could turn around, a pair of hands encircled her,
'accidently' touching her in an unfortunate couple of places. With a
level of calm that was probably more frightening than her rages,
Ryouga-chan reached behind her and grabbed the neck of her assailant.
She pulled the person in front of her and stared at what she had. It
was a boy, about the age of Ryouga. He had scruffy brown hair and a
stupid leer on his face. He was drooling.

"I like the boy's uniform." the boy said calmly, even though he was
being held two feet off the ground by his neck. "You don't know
Ryunosuke do you?" His lecherous grin grew even wider as he chuckled.
"I like a woman who feels free enough to not wear a bra."

"And you are?" Ryouga-chan asked, her voice still worryingly calm.

"Ataru's the name. Pleased to meet you." he said, raising his hand for
a handshake.

"You won't be pleased for long." Ryouga-chan answered as she twisted
Ataru's body into a shape that a contortionist would wince at.

"Darling! Where are you?" a female voice cried out. A moment later, a
green haired girl with two small horns wearing a tiger striped bikini
flew around a nearby corner. When she saw Ataru lying in a painful heap
in front of Ryouga-chan, the girl's eyes narrowed. "Daarrlinng! Chasing
after other women again!" Electricity arced around her as she flew
towards Ataru.

Ryouga-chan showed either an innate wisdom, or else a martial artist's
ability to sense and avoid danger by edging away from Ataru as quickly
as she could.  She scuttled around a corner as the sounds of electrical
discharge and a man's screams echoed behind her.

"Now, where is my home room?" Ryouga-chan asked herself. After finding
a janitor's closet, the principal's office and a nurse's station (Gee,
the nurse was a bit of a babe.) she finally found a home room. She
stepped in, hoping that she had found the right one. Her heart sank as
she saw that Ranma and Akane weren't there.

Perhaps they were lucky they weren't here, this room was in absolute
chaos.  The green haired girl he saw before was flying above the heads
of everyone, as Ataru dodged a well groomed man who was slashing at him
with a katana.  Another girl, this one with reddish brown hair, had
hefted the teachers desk above her head, an angry look on her face. She
was aiming the desk at Ataru.

Ataru, seeing the girl with the desk, dodged in front of Ryouga-chan
before darting off again. Unfortunately, it was at this moment that the
girl, blinded by rage, threw the desk. Ryouga-chan sighed as the desk
loomed in her vision.  She set herself and caught the desk. She wobbled
for a moment as she fought against the desk's momentum. Once she
stabilised, she set the desk down.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there!" the girl who threw the desk
cried as she came over to Ryouga-chan. "I'm Shinobu. What's your name?"

Ryouga-chan looked a bit nervous. The girl had just thrown a huge desk
at her, after all. That put her into the 'be wary of' category. "My
name is.... Ryoko.  I'm having a little trouble finding my home room. I
don't suppose you know where it is?"

"Well, what's your home room number?" Shinobu asked.

Ryouga-chan rubbed the back of her head, and chuckled inanely. "Eh heh
heh heh. I don't know. This is my first day."

Ataru glomped onto Ryouga-chan. "You can always stay here with me,
Ryoko baby." he said, grinning lecherously.

Ryouga-chan peeled Ataru off her and threw him out a window. One of the
closed ones.

"Darling!" the green haired girl cried, flying out of the window in
pursuit of Ataru.

Shinobu shook her head. "Well, you'll fit in just fine around here."

One of the boys had walked up to stand next to Shinobu. He was staring
at Ryouga-chan in a sort of empathic sympathy. Ryouga-chan narrowed her
eyes.  Something was rubbing her wrong about this guy.

Shinobu addressed the boy. "Ryunosuke, this is Ryoko. She's new here,
and she can't find her home room."

Ryouga-chan fidgeted for a moment before asking an embarrassing
question.  "Don't take this the wrong way, but are you a guy or a
girl?" she asked Ryunosuke.

"How can you say that about my son?" a man, who had appeared from
nowhere, shouted.

"I'm a girl!" Ryunosuke shouted as she punched the man out of the
room.

[Please, please, please, please, please tell me that my home room won't
be as bad as this one.] Ryouga-chan thought/prayed to herself.

"All right, everybody sit down." a burly teacher said as he entered the
room.  "You!" he said, pointing at Ryouga-chan. "You're not supposed to
be here."

"Ryoko here is new, and she can't find her home room." Shinobu said as
she sat down at her desk.

"Fine, she can stay here for the rest of the day. Ryoko, you can sit
down over there."

Ryouga-chan sighed as she sat down next to Ryunosuke. The class started
as the sounds of someone being electrocuted could be heard outside.

"So I guess you were raised as a guy, dressed like that." Ryunosuke
whispered to Ryouga-chan while the teacher was distracted by the green
haired girl flying in the window, dragging in a smoking Ataru.

"Yes, you could say that I was.... raised as a boy." Ryouga-chan
answered, absently swatting away a duster that was thrown at her by the
teacher.

***********************************************

It was nighttime. Genma and Ranma were in the dojo. They were carrying
out a conversation whilst standing on their heads.

"So, I hear Akane really looked out for you today." Genma said.

"Not like I asked her to." Ranma answered.

"So where's Ryouga?" Genma asked.

"Do you have to ask?" Ranma replied.

"Ah, lost again. Sometimes I despair of that boy." Genma said,
sighing.

Ranma nodded, not an easy thing to do when you're standing on your
head.  Maybe Ryouga got deliberately lost, just so he didn't have to
pretend to be a girl. Hah. Pretend to be a girl. That guy would go to
any lengths to keep his curse a secret. Ranma wasn't too keen on people
finding out about his curse either. He had thought Kunou had found out
during their fight today, but luckily Kunou had thought Ranma's girl
side wasn't Ranma. Ranma really had to wonder how long his luck would
hold out.

***********************************************

Ryouga looked around. Yesterday had been an unpleasant way to start
school.  Not only had Ataru continually tried to glomp onto her (and he
showed a recovery rate that even Ryouga, a hardy.... man, would kill
for), but many of the other boys had tried to chat her up. Ryouga
blushed as he remembered Shinobu telling his female side that maybe
wearing a relatively thin white shirt without a bra wasn't a good idea
if you didn't want guys noticing you.

Still, at least he had made a couple of friends. Shinobu and Ryunosuke
were pretty nice. Ryouga still had a little trouble talking to girls
without getting embarrassed, but having been a half-girl for a few
months had given him some ability to talk to them without his usual
nervousness. It was a sign of that improvement that Ryouga could make
friends with a couple of girls so easily. Ryouga had been sure to find
out the home room number of Shinobu's class before the school day had
ended so that he, or to be more exact, she could get Ranma or Akane to
show her where they were in the school.

Ryouga's precautions with packing a large school bag proved to be
necessary.  After the school day ended (and he changed back to a guy in
a dingy little rest room), he tried in vain to find the Tendo Dojo.
Finally, after hours of wandering, he gave up and camped for the night
in an empty lot (which, ironically, was only a block from the Dojo.)

He got up early in the morning, hoping he could find either the Dojo or
the Furinkan School in time to be not late. After an hour or so of
walking around, asking directions off of anyone he could see, he saw a
school in front of him.  There were various puddles of water around the
place, apparently it had rained here last night, a bit of a surprise
since it wasn't raining where Ryouga had camped. As he approached the
school gates, he looked around hopefully, for Ranma. [This doesn't look
quite right.] he thought, [But I wasn't really paying attention to what
the school looked like from outside, so maybe this is right.]

As he got closer, he noticed that there was a girl leaning against the
school gates. All the other girls were avoiding walking too near her.
[There seem to be a lot of girls here.] he thought. [Maybe all the guys
are already inside, waiting for that stupid fight thing again.]

Ryouga heard a rumbling sound behind him. Turning, he saw something was
coming towards him at an incredible pace, kicking up a dust cloud. As
the cloud got closer, two forms took shape within. A red haired girl
was dragging a giggling yellow haired girl towards the school, running
at an unbelievable pace.

"Ranma?" Ryouga asked hopefully, but as the girl got closer, he saw
that it wasn't Ranma's girl form. Perhaps he should have spent more
time in getting out of the way of the approaching girl, rather than
standing in the middle of a road puzzling out the identity of some red
headed health freak.

For once, Ryouga didn't suffer complete bad luck. The running girl
didn't run over him. What did happen, however, was that as she ran by,
she kicked up water from the puddles, splashing Ryouga, turning him
into a girl again.

"I don't believe this." Ryouga-chan muttered to herself. She did her
best to squeeze as much of the water out of her shirt as possible
without taking it off as she walked up to the school gates.

At the gates, the red head was talking to the girl had been leaning
against the gates. "Honestly, B-ko, can't you just give it up? I've got
better things to do than trash your robots."

B-ko laughed. "This time my robots will trash you, A-ko. This time I
will save C-ko from you." She gestured, and ten gigantic robots sprung
from their hiding places.

A-ko sighed and jumped at one of the robots. She grabbed it's left arm
and, while still in mid air, threw the robot at another. They crashed
into each other, disabling both. Soon, a giant dust cloud was kicked
up. Seconds later, A-ko flew from within the cloud, landing hard
against a tree. The cloud blew away, revealing that only two robots
were still going, one of which was close to failure. The two robots
stepped towards A-ko. After three strides, the damaged robot fell
apart. The last remaining robot, however, appeared to be fully
functional. It loomed over a dazed A-ko, who was struggling to get up.

"Finally, finally." B-ko hissed to herself as she watched from the
sidelines.

The robot raised its right hand in preparation for a crushing blow. As
the hand began its deadly descent, the arm it was attached to was
abruptly cut off by Ryouga-chan's belt sword. Ryouga-chan landed
lightly in front of the now one armed robot. "Using a robot to fight
for you isn't very honourable." she noted as she quickly rebelted her
sword (after all, the pants were designed for her male form, and
without her belt, they tended to fall down).

The robot targeted this new threat, and tried to destroy it by a mighty
kick.  Ryouga-chan sidestepped the kick before leaping up onto the
robot's shoulders.  She grasped it's head with her hands, and, with a
mighty heave, ripped its head right off. Ryouga-chan leapt off the
robot as it fell over backwards, disabled.

"No!" B-ko screamed. And she couldn't even battle this interloper, she
had sent all her battle suits to the dry cleaner for the day. "What is
your name?" she hissed to Ryouga-chan.

A bit startled at the venom in her voice, Ryouga-chan answered warily
"Um...  Ryoko."

"I will remember you." B-ko vowed as she stalked into the school.

"Hey, that was pretty good work." A-ko said as she stepped up to
Ryouga-chan.

Ryouga-chan blushed, mumbling "It was nothing." She looked at the
wreckage of the robots and asked the redhead "I suppose this isn't
Furinkan High School?"

"Furinkan?" A-ko repeated. "Never heard of it. Where is it?"

"Um.... Nerima." Ryouga-chan said.

"Nerima? But you're in Graviton City." A-ko said, a bit puzzled.

"Oh. Well, thanks anyway." Ryouga-chan said as she hefted her school
bag and walked off.

"Strange girl." A-ko said, shaking her head. She raced off to class.

***********************************************

Ranma sat next to Akane underneath a tree, calmly eating his lunch.

"Aren't you worried about Ryouga?" Akane asked Ranma, a bit annoyed at
his calm attitude to the lost boy's disappearance.

Ranma shook his head in a no. "Ryouga does this all the time. He can
look after himself. In a few days, he'll be back. A couple of days from
then he'll be lost again. Believe me, you get used to it."

"Saotome!" Kunou shouted as he strode up to Ranma. "What have you done
with the beautiful Ryoko?"

"What makes you think I had anything to do with her disappearance?"
Ranma asked as he stood, wary of an attack. As Kunou began to rant,
Ranma sighed to himself. He hoped that Ryouga was having an easier time
wherever he was.

***********************************************

Ryouga-chan looked at the new school she was facing. She was really
beginning to curse the fact that she hadn't payed more attention to the
Furinkan School on the first day, but Nabiki had been distracting him
with her questions. The sad fact was, she couldn't remember exactly
what the school looked like. The one she was standing in front of now
didn't look quite right either.

Ryouga-chan perked up as she heard the sounds of explosions coming from
within the school. Large explosions meant an even money chance of it
being Ranma. She rushed into the school.

Soon, she found herself outside again. There were some really weird
looking creatures in front of her, tormenting some guy in metallic blue
armour. [Maybe they're practising for a movie.] Ryouga-chan thought to
herself. "Excuse me." she shouted out to get the attention of the
monsters. "Is this Furinkan High School?"

The monsters turned from the armoured man to look at this small
reddish-brown haired girl. "Somebody kill her." a grey skinned rhino
like creature said.

"Sure thing." An equally strange creature with large growths on its
shoulders said. Two missiles sprung from it, heading towards
Ryouga-chan. She desperately leaped out of the way. The ground exploded
where she had been standing.

Ryouga-chan's eyes blazed in fury as she saw the smoking hole where she
had just been. Some jerk in a rubber suit had just tried to kill her,
and she wasn't happy about it. Quickly, she ripped six bandannas off
her head, and started twirling them on her two index fingers, three
bandannas to each hand.  As she directed ki into the bandannas to make
them razor sharp, she leapt high, almost impossibly high. At the apex
of her jump, she threw the six bandannas at the creature that had
attacked her.

The creature dodged two, but the other four bandannas hit their marks,
slicing through various parts of the monster's body, including the two
shoulder growths.

As a different coloured liquid leaked out of each shoulder, the monster
had time to say "Oh no." before the two liquids mixed in sufficient
quantity to make the entire store explode, blowing him into oblivion.

"You bit..." the monster with swords in its arms managed to say before
it was cut in half from behind by the blue armoured guy.

The remaining two monsters looked angrily at their two opponents before
they turned and ran.

"You may regret doing that." a voice said from above Ryouga-chan. She
looked up, and saw a man in similar armour to the blue guy, except his
was mostly black, with some red here and there. He waved/saluted
Ryouga-chan before flying off.

"Thanks for the help." the blue armoured man said. "How did you do
that? What are you?"

"Me? I'm just a martial artist." Ryouga-chan answered. [Who can swap
genders as easily as other people can swap clothes.] she thought
sardonically to herself. "Do you know where Furinkan High School is?"

The man's armour seemed to swell out before disintegrating, revealing a
young man who seemed to be about Ryouga's age. "Furinkan? Isn't that in
Nerima?"

Ryouga-chan nodded.

"In that case, Nerima is that way." the teen said, pointing out a
direction.

"Thanks." Ryouga-chan said as she began to walk off on a route that
wasn't quite the way the boy had pointed out.

"Wait! My name's Sho, what's yours?" the boy shouted to the departing
Ryouga-chan.

Ryouga-chan was starting to get used to using her 'alias' in this form,
so she said "Ryoko." as she continued to walk.

"You be careful, Ryoko." Sho shouted to her. "You don't know the
trouble you may have put yourself in."

***********************************************

Ryouga looked around tiredly at his surroundings. It was the start of
the fourth day since he had last been at Furinkan. In that time, he had
visited sixteen schools, at each of which he had attacked or been
attacked by something. Six times it was mecha or robots. Four times it
was some type of monster. Once, it was a tentacled horror that had been
doing some things to a girl that would be in any nightmare involving
him being stuck in female form for weeks to come (he hadn't needed
prompting to kill that thing). Three times he had been attacked by
various martial artists for no good reason. Once it had been a demon
who was after a three eyed girl and a guy who GOT BACK UP AGAIN AFTER
BEING DISEMBOWELLED. The last encounter had been the only one he
remembered with any fondness, it had involved some guys unsuccessfully
trying to beat up a naked girl who wore a red mask. Ryouga had passed
out, nose bleeding, so he hadn't been able to help her. Not that she
needed it. He had never realised just how dangerous the Japanese School
System was until this little journey.

Now he was in yet another school. He approached a girl with relatively
short hair. Her back was to him, so he cleared his throat and said
"Excuse me, this wouldn't happen to be Furinkan, would it?"

"Well of course its Furinkan." Nabiki answered as she turned to Ryouga.
"Oh!  Ryouga! We were starting to wonder about you. Where have you
been?"

"I really don't want to talk about it." Ryouga answered. "I don't
suppose you fixed that little problem, did you?"

"What little problem?" Nabiki asked, a puzzled look on her face.

Ryouga sighed, resisting the urge to slap his hand over his
forehead/eyes.  "The little matter of me being registered as a girl?"
He reached back and felt the reassuring lump of a thermos in his bag.
After some of the ridiculous ways he had been hit with water in the
last few days, he had prepared some hot water before breaking camp that
morning.

"Oh, that." Nabiki looked at the clock tower's clock. "I guess I can
fix that up. Wait here. Don't want you getting lost again now, do we?"
She asked as she walked off towards the school.

Ryouga plonked onto the ground under a tree. Four days of draining
fights and travel had taken their toll on him. He rested against the
tree, waiting for Nabiki's return. His eyes closed. He was almost
feeling peaceful when he was jolted from his rest by someone splashing
cold water in his face.

"What?" Ryouga-chan spluttered as she opened her eyes. She saw Nabiki
standing over her, an empty glass in her hand. "What did you do that
for?"

"We, or, to be more exact, you have a problem." Nabiki said. She almost
looked embarrassed.

"What do you mean..... problem?" Ryouga-chan asked.

"My.... contact in registration was transferred to another school. The
guy who replaced him is new. He refused to change the documents back,
so its going to take me a while to fix this up. I'll have to find
something to... convince him to help you out. That could take a while."

"You mean....."

"If you want to go to school, you'll have to do it as a girl."

A howl of mixed rage and anguish rang out along the school. Several
students shuddered as they imagined what sort of tortured animal could
make such a sound.

***********************************************

Akane and Ranma had just sat down in their class when Nabiki walked in,
dragging a frozen Ryouga-chan.

"What's wrong with hi... her?" Akane asked.

"Lets just say that she didn't take some information well." Nabiki
replied as she dropped her cargo into an empty desk next to Ranma.

Ranma looked around for witnesses, then he whispered to Nabiki. "Why is
he still a girl?"

Nabiki whispered back "Its going to take me some time to change his
records back, so until then he has to keep up this little charade if he
doesn't want his secret out."

Akane walked over to Ryouga-chan and poked her. Ryouga-chan didn't
respond. "I don't think he's taking this too well." she whispered.

Ranma sighed. "I guess we better start calling him her from now on. I
can't blame him for wanting to keep the curse a secret, and it wouldn't
be honourable of us to not help him."

"Well I can't see any profit in telling anyone." Nabiki said."See you
later." She waved and then walked out of the room.

Ranma and Akane turned back to Ryouga-chan when they heard a crumpling
sound.  They saw that Ryouga-chan was sitting up straight, chunks of
the desk in each of her hands.

"You all right?" Ranma asked.

"No I'm not." Ryouga-chan said. "I just had what may well be the most
miserable four days in my existence, only to come back here and find
out that I have to pretend to be a girl if I want to keep my secret and
stay here."

"You could always just tell everyone about the curse. What's so bad
about being a girl anyway?" Akane asked.

Ranma and Ryouga-chan looked at Akane like she had just said the
stupidest thing on earth. Ranma looked at Ryouga-chan and asked "So
what are you going to do?"

Ryouga-chan sighed. "I'll have to think about it. For now, I guess I'll
pretend to be a girl. Hopefully, Nabiki won't take too long to get
things straightened out. I guess if I've learned anything from some of
the things I've seen on my last trip, its that there are worse things
at schools than having to pretend you're a girl."

"What?" Ranma asked, confused.

"Nothing." Ryouga-chan said. [Still, I wish I could find the place
where I saw that girl with the red mask. I'd like to ask her where she
hid those nunchakus.] She wiped away some blood that trickled out of
her nose. After all, even though she was in a girl's body, she was
still a guy. "So, anything happen while I was away?"

Ranma snorted. "You could say that. Kunou fell for your girl side bad.
When you disappeared, he blamed me cause he thinks that I'm also
responsible for holding my girl side captive. The idiot hasn't realised
that me and the 'pig-tailed girl' are one and the same, even though we
practically spelled it out to him."

"He fell for me? After I beat him into the ground? What sort of pervert
is this guy?" Ryouga-chan asked.

"A persistent one." He leaned over to Ryouga-chan and whispered "You'd
better be careful around Nabiki. She's been selling pictures of Akane
and my girl side to Kunou. I know how you'll react if you see Kunou
with those sorts of pictures, so it'd be better for all if you just
avoid getting photographed in compromising conditions."

Ryouga-chan sighed. [Great, another thing to worry about.] "What about
those big fights in the morning? They still going on?"

Ranma shook his head. "Nah, they gave up this morning after they saw
what I'd done in a fight with Kunou.

They stopped talking as the teacher walked in. "Ah, I see you're back
Ryoko." he said. "You've got some catching up to do, young lady."

Another chunk of Ryouga-chan's desk bit the dust as she squeezed it in
frustration at being called a girl. "Hai, sensei." she answered
sullenly.

***********************************************

Lunch time arrived. As Ryouga-chan started to follow Ranma out, she
found herself surrounded by girls.

"Hello there." a short brunette said. "Your name is Ryoko, right?"

Ryouga-chan fidgeted nervously. She might be a lot better at talking to
people than she used to be, but she still got nervous, especially when
it was a crowd of girls who were talking to him/her. "Um... yes?" she
said meekly.

Another girl, one with long raven-black hair, piped up. "We've been
wanting to talk to you ever since what you did to Kunou, but then you
disappeared before we got the chance."

"About what?" Ryouga-chan asked nervously. After all, even though she
had instantly disliked Kunou when she saw him, she realised that he was
a handsome man. Perhaps these girls were angry at her for beating him
up. Ryouga-chan didn't know what she would do if it came down to a
fight. She wouldn't like beating up on girls, even if they did have
martial training, and surely not all of these girls would be martial
artists.

The first girl spoke again. "We just wanted to congratulate you on
beating that loser."

Another girl, with black hair in a ponytail, nodded. "Yeah, we're all
getting sick of Kunou. The way he treats women, you'd think we were
only good as wives."

The second girl to speak said "He might go for Akane more than most,
but he still accosts the rest of us occasionally. He really is a pig,
and he deserved what you did to him. Not even Akane has ever beaten him
up like that."

Ryouga-chan blushed. "Well, I...."

The first girl grabbed Ryouga-chan's arm and started dragging him out
the door, as the other girls followed. "Come on." she said. "We all
want to hear about you over lunch."

"But I didn't bring any lunch." Ryouga-chan protested. It was true, she
had ran out of food yesterday. After all, there was only so much you
could pack in a school bag.

"You can share ours." a girl said as she pushed Ryouga-chan from
behind. "We want to hear about your training trip. Did you really
travel with Ranma to China? What's he like? What are him and Akane like
at home? Where did you learn how to beat up people like you did Kunou?
Was it Ranma?"

"Ranma's father taught me most of my..." Ryouga-chan began.

Another girl drowned him out. "And you've got to tell us why you dress
like that. Why are you dressed like a boy? And no bra! Have you no
shame?"

Ryouga-chan was blushing so hard she was almost purple as other girls
started asking her why she was dressed like that and more made comments
about underwear. She tried to think of something to say, then
remembered the excuse she had used to Ryunosuke. "I was raised as a
boy." she said, truthfully enough. "This is how I've always dressed."

"Well that just won't do." yet another girl piped up. "We're going to
have to get you dressed right. To the lockers, girls! I'm sure between
us we can scrounge up something."

As the other girls gave cries of agreement, Ryouga-chan was struggling
against their grip. Even though she was monstrously strong in either
form, the girls had numbers and determination on their side. "What? No!
I am not wearing a dress!" Ryouga-chan screamed as she was dragged
off.

**********************************************

Ryouga-chan was in a school dress. [This is the worst day of my life.]
she thought. Then she thought about Jusenkyo. [Well, it's the second
worst day of my life.] She sighed as she rolled her shoulders. [Damn
this bra is uncomfortable.]

The onlooking girls were nodding and speaking in approval. "Ryoko,
you're beautiful." one sighed, as others made similar comments.

Ryouga-chan looked in a mirror. Some of the girls had applied some
makeup to her. Nothing obvious, the school didn't condone heavy makeup,
but as one girl had sagely said while helping another ten girls to hold
Ryouga-chan down so the makeup girl could do her work, 'The best makeup
is the one you can't tell is being used.'.

[All I can see is myself in a dress.] she thought as she looked at her
reflection. [Sure, I'm cute enough, but so what? This isn't me. Its
just a horrible caricature. Maybe I should just give up on this. Maybe
I should just leave, and go back to my wandering.]

Ryouga-chan sighed again. She just couldn't do it. She couldn't face
the loneliness of her eternal wandering any more. When Ryouga had made
friends with Ranma, and their friendship had grown to a certain point,
he had found that whenever he got lost, he really felt the isolation of
being alone. Sure, he had been lonely before, but after he made
friends, he really began to feel it. And Ryouga knew he couldn't face
that again. When he was lost, it was the prospect of coming back to his
friends that drove him on.

He hadn't seen his mother in three years, his father in four. He had
been home so rarely, seen his parents even less, that he didn't even
know if he had any siblings. Ranma was like a brother to him, Genma
like a.....distant uncle.  They were his family, and perhaps, with
time, the Tendos would be family too.  The only other friend he had was
somewhere in China, perhaps dead.

He might get lost, but his days of wandering without a home were over.
He had somewhere to go, a friend, hopefully friends when he got to know
the Tendos, to come back to. And he would do anything, suffer any
humiliation to ensure that he could stay with what had become, to all
intents, his true family.

But damn it, Ryouga didn't plan on wearing a dress and [gad, how can
anyone wear these!] a bra too often. Ryouga-chan rolled her shoulders
again in a desperate attempt to get the bra to sit right.

"I can see why she didn't wear a bra." one of the girls muttered to
another.  "That was the biggest one any of us had, and its still too
small."

***********************************************

Ranma and Akane were eating their lunch together. Not that either of
them would admit that they were 'eating together', but they were having
their lunch within five feet of each other, so its close enough as far
as descriptions go.

"Have you seen Ryouga?" Ranma asked Akane. "I'm gonna kill him if he's
lost again already."

"Don't worry about it, Ranma. Some of the girls in our class wanted to
talk to him.... well, her, really. I've warned them about his sense of
direction. They won't let him get lost."

"But what do they want with him?"

"Just girl talk." Akane answered.

"Ah, that explains why you aren't with them." Ranma said, nodding
sagely.

Akane was about to belt Ranma when she saw something that made her spit
out the mouthful of drink she had been about to swallow.

"What? What is it?" Ranma asked, concerned. He still kept eating,
though.

Akane raised a hand, which was shaking, and pointed. Ranma looked up,
and started to choke as he saw Ryouga-chan, in a school dress, being
dragged along by about fifteen girls.

"Is that makeup?" Akane wondered aloud. Ranma didn't reply, probably
because he was too busy turning blue. Akane noticed his plight and gave
him a hearty slap on the back. Ranma gasped, then started sucking in
air in big gasps.

"What... the hell?" Ranma wheezed.

"Poor Ryouga." Akane said. Then, she couldn't hold it in any longer.
She started to laugh.

Ranma gave her the evil eye. He had just put himself in Ryouga's
position, and he was sure Ryouga wasn't having the time of his life.
"It's not funny, you know."

"I know, I know. But I just can't help it. Bwahahahha!"

***********************************************

Ryouga-chan had lost some of her nervousness around the girls. They
were sitting around in a group, eating their lunches. They had each
given her a little portion of their lunch so that she could eat as
well. After finally reigning in an unbelievable blush, Ryouga-chan used
a time honoured method to ignore the dress and bra. She just forgot she
was wearing them. Oh sure, she still knew she was wearing them (it was
a bit hard not to when the bra was too tight) but every time her mind
would start to say 'You are dressed like a girl', she would savagely
put it down.

Ryouga-chan was actually starting to find this.... pleasant. They were
being so nice to her, someone they knew nothing about. They were
treating her like just another girl, and it actually felt.... good.
True, Ryouga would have preferred to be male and over talking to the
guys, but this was very peaceful.

So it was inevitable that just as Ryouga-chan was starting to calm down
from being woman handled by the girls, Kunou happened to see her. He
began running towards her, shouting as he did.

"Ryoko! My beautiful bandannaed tigress! You have escaped the clutches
of that vile sorcerer, Saotome! How your heart must have yearned to run
into my arms whilst you were under his foul yoke. Fear not, I am here!
I shall take your mind off your worries by dating with thee!" With
that, he leapt towards her, his arms held wide, ready to hug her.

Ryouga-chan grabbed one of his outstretched arms, turned, and used
Kunou's momentum to slam him into the tree the girls had been sitting
under. Before Kunou could recover, Ryouga-chan locked his arms behind
him, and placed her knee into the small of his back so he couldn't
move.

"Ranma told me you were after me, but I couldn't believe it."
Ryouga-chan snarled. "Are you a pervert or just stupid? Didn't me
hitting you eighteen times give you a hint that I didn't like you?
Well, I'll spell it out for you, Kunou. I'd rather _you_ die than date
you. And believe me, if you keep this up, you'll find out that it's my
pleasure to give you pain."

She released him, and turned back to the girls. "Man, he is
unbelievable." She froze as arms encircled her from behind.

"Ah, she is like a lioness. Fierce and protective, but at heart, she is
just a big kitten." Kunou said as he rested his head against
Ryouga-chan's shoulder.

[And I thought Ataru was a hentai.] was her last coherent thought for a
while.  Ryouga began to glow a blinding shade of blue. The next few
seconds have been cut out because young children and people with weak
stomachs might be reading.

After finally deciding that she had beaten Kunou up enough for now,
Ryouga-chan hefted Kunou's battered body and, with her considerable
strength, flung the boy into low earth orbit. The girls that had been
sitting with her started clapping.

"Nice distance." one of the girls said.

***********************************************

Ranma and Akane led Ryouga-chan home. Showing more self preservation
than usual, Ranma decided to not say anything about the dress
Ryouga-chan was wearing.

Ryouga-chan practically bolted to her room, grabbing a teapot full of
hot water on the way. She was in such a hurry that she didn't even get
lost.

She raced into the room she, Ranma, and Genma shared, tossing off the
dress and the hated bra. With a sigh, she poured the hot water over
herself, changing her back into a man. Soon, he was dressed in his
usual yellow shirt and black pants.

Outside the window, Nabiki smiled as she returned to her room, camera
in hand.  "Gotcha." she said.

***********************************************

It was night, the Tendos, Saotomes, and Ryouga were sitting down to
dinner. At a lull in the conversation, Kasumi turned to Ryouga and
asked "So how long have you been a student of Uncle Saotome's for,
Ryouga?"

Ryouga seemed a bit startled to be included in the conversation, before
he replied "Umm... well it must be about two or three years now. You
see, what happened was..."

++++++++++++++++++++++ (Flashback:
 It is lunch time at the cafeteria at an all boys school. There is a
 huge rush of boys crowding around the cafeteria workers. Suddenly, one
 of the workers yells out "Last of the curry bread".

 "I thought it was soup bread." Ranma's voice-over interjected into the
 story.

 "Look, I'm telling the story Ranma, and it was curry bread." Ryouga's
 voice-over snarled before the flashback continued.

 The worker threw the piece of bread into the air. Several hands
 reached out for the precious prize, before a boy, obviously a younger
 Ranma cannons out of the crowd, grabbing the bread. As he lands,
 another young boy, Ryouga, walks out of the crowd, red footmarks on
 his face announcing that he was the springboard that Ranma used to get
 his height.

 "Who... who are you?" Ryouga asked this... thief, this worst of
 enemies.

 "Saotome Ranma." Ranma had answered as he stared at the other boy,
 curiosity on his face. He ate the bread he had claimed in two bites.

 "I am Hibiki Ryouga. I shall not forget this." Ryouga had then walked
 away, crying.

 "I was crying tears of bitterness." Ryouga's voice-over stated.

 "It was just bread, Ryouga." Ranma's voice-over interjected surlily.

 "I hadn't eaten in over a day !" Ryouga's voice-over retorted.
 "Anyway...."

 It was three days later, at the cafeteria again. There was a similar
 crowd to the last time.

 "Why three days later?" Akane's voice-over asked curiously.

 "Took him that long to find the place again." Ranma's voice-over
 replied.

 "Shut up !" Ryouga's voice-over snarled eloquently.

 The crowd in the cafeteria was mobbing the food servers again. Again,
 as the last piece of bread was thrown, Ranma was the one to leap out
 of the crowd to catch it. As he reached for it, a bandanna whizzes out
 of the air and deflects the bread out of Ranma's grasping hands. The
 thrower of the bandanna, Ryouga, calmly catches the bread.

 Ranma looked at Ryouga, who was eating the bread as quickly as he
 could. That had been a good throw. Ranma could respect someone who
 could beat him to a prize like that. He walked up to Ryouga, who
 looked back at him cautiously. Ranma smiled, and said "Ya got me this
 time Just don't expect me to fall for that one again."

 Ryouga smiled too. "Don't get too cocky. I have more up my sleeve than
 my bandannas."

 "And so it went." Ryouga voice over said. "We competed for the bread.
 Most of the times, Ranma would win. But I got my fair share as well,
 and we developed a friendship. One day, instead of just bragging to
 each other after Ranma managed to snatch the bread, we actually
 talked."

 Ranma looked over at Ryouga. The guy was getting pretty good at trying
 to get to the bread before him. Today, Ranma had won, but it had been
 a close thing. Perhaps it was time to make a peace offering. He tore
 the bread he had in half and offered half of it to Ryouga.

 Ryouga looked hungry, but he refused the bread. "I don't want your
 cast-offs, Ranma." he said. "I shall get my food through fairer
 means."

 "But if you really want some bread than why don't you just get here
 earlier?" Ranma asked. "C'mon, just take it." he added as he saw
 Ryouga looking at the piece of bread Ranma was still offering him.

 Ryouga stared at the offered piece of bread for a moment before
 snatching it and swallowing it ravenously. After sating his hunger
 somewhat, he considered Ranma's question before answering. "I'm....
 rarely here."

 "Aw c'mon." Ranma snorted. "You should be here every day, just like
 the rest of us, so what do you mean you're 'rarely here'?"

 Ryouga clammed up, refusing to answer. The two boys stood there,
 looking at each other in silence for about five minutes before Ryouga
 eventually asked something that had been on his mind. "So.... Ranma."

 "Yeah?"

 "Um... where did you learn to leap like that?"

 "Oh, that. I'm a martial artist. I've been training since I was five
 years old."

 Ryouga's face grew contemplative for a few seconds before he asked
 "Ah...  I don't suppose you could teach me how to do that?"

 Ranma looked at Ryouga's earnest expression before saying "I can't
 teach you, my pop would kill me." Seeing the crestfallen expression on
 the other boy's face, he continued "But I'll take you to my pop.
 He's... a martial arts master, he can teach you if he wants to."

 "Ok." Ryouga said. "I guess I'd better get to class now." He wandered
 off, as Ranma followed a similar path to get to his own class. Their
 paths diverged when Ryouga went through one door, while Ranma
 continued down the hall. About two seconds later, Ranma stopped,
 turned, and walked to the door that Ryouga had stepped through.
 Opening it, he looked at Ryouga and said "Why are you in the janitor's
 closet?"

 "Eh...heh heh heh." Ryouga replied, blushing in embarrassment.

 Ranma rolled his eyes before grabbing Ryouga's arm. "C'mon." he said.

 After school, Ranma led Ryouga to where he and his father had been
 camping.  Ranma had quickly realised that Ryouga had an atrocious
 sense of direction after almost losing the guy at least six times
 along the way. Now Ranma kept a death grip on Ryouga's arm, and
 snarled every time Ryouga started to stray off course.

 Genma looked at the boy that Ranma had led to him with curiosity.
 "What have we here, son? Is this a friend of yours?"

 "This is Ryouga, pop. He wants to learn martial arts." Ranma replied.

 "I don't suppose you could teach me?" Ryouga asked hopefully.

 "Reveal the secrets of the Saotome School? Never !" Genma replied.

 Ranma snorted in disgust. "Aw, c'mon pop. He's not asking to learn
 your precious secret techniques. He's just asking you to teach him
 what you can."

 "Nevertheless, we won't be around here for long enough to start any
 training.  I'm sorry, but the answer is still no."

 Ryouga sighed as he felt his depression rise at this man's rejection.
 He really wanted to learn martial arts, but he had never been able to
 find a training place often enough to get beyond the bare basics. Many
 of the places that took him on had thrown him out when he didn't
 arrive for training very often (because, of course, he was lost). It
 was then that he remembered a lesson his father, a businessman, had
 taught him on one of the rare occasions that the two had seen each
 other. 'Son, ', he had said,'when all else fails, grease their palms.'

 "Mr Saotome...." Ryouga began hesitantly. "I could... pay."

 Genma thought about it for about a millisecond. He was poor, and he
 was planning to take a trip to China with his son in the very near
 future. The simple fact was, he needed money. So he took Ryouga's hand
 and shook it, saying "Glad to have you as a student." )
++++++++++++++++++++++

Ryouga continued his story, "So Mr Saotome began to train me.
Eventually he said that he and Ranma were going to China to continue
their training, so I asked if I could come along. After all, there was
nothing to keep me where I was. Hell, I didn't _know_ where I was most
of the time. At first he said no, but me and Ranma managed to talk him
around."

(Flashback of Ranma and Ryouga beating up Genma until he agrees to
allow Ryouga to accompany them to China.)

"And that's pretty much how it happened." Ryouga finished.

***********************************************

Ranma, Akane and Ryouga-chan were walking to school. Ryouga-chan was
wearing a boy's uniform again. She was sure she'd get grief for it, but
she didn't care. This time, she had brought her red bamboo umbrella,
just to make sure. There had been some times on her last trip when she
had been a girl where being a guy would have been a lot better.

Akane looked at Ryouga-chan and sighed. [He's being ridiculous about
this. He should just swallow his pride and admit to the school that he
has a curse.  He's going to find himself in big trouble if he doesn't
do it soon.]

They walked on for a few more minutes, occasionally correcting
Ryouga-chan's path, when Akane broached a subject with Ryouga-chan that
she had been meaning to talk about for a while. "Ryouga?"

"Yes Akane?" Ryouga-chan answered politely.

"What is it with you and Kunou?"

"What do you mean with me and Kunou?" Ryouga-chan said angrily. "There
is no me and Kunou."

Akane shook her head. "No, no. I mean the way you keep beating him up
like that. I really think you're going overboard on this. You might
kill him if you keep this up."

"Kill him?" Ryouga-chan asked confused. "If I wanted him dead, then I
wouldn't have stopped attacking him the first time. He just gets me so
angry, the way he tries to fondle me. He can certainly handle the
punishment. He gets back up again a few minutes after I've hit him. The
guy's already brain dead, so there can't be any damage to him."

"Well, I really think you should lay off him a bit. Its not healthy to
get so angry at someone."

Ranma snorted. "I'm sorry, who are you, and what have you done with the
real Akane? You're the last person to talk about controlling their
temper."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Akane asked angrily.

"Alright! Alright!" Ryouga-chan screamed. "If you two would shut up,
then I'll promise to go a bit easier on Kunou. Don't you two ever stop
fighting? I've been back one day, and all you two do is gripe and moan
at each other. You're supposed to be engaged! Engaged to each other,
not enraged at each other!  Aaarrrrggghhhh! You're making me wish I was
lost again!"

Ranma and Akane looked at each other sheepishly as Ryouga-chan strode
off, muttering to herself. Ranma ran up to Ryouga-chan before she could
get lost, and steered her in the right direction again.

***********************************************

Finally, the three made it to school. Unfortunately, along the way,
someone had spilled hot coffee on Ryouga-chan, reverting her to her
male form. They had been so close to school that the other two
convinced Ryouga that the easiest way to get cold water would be to
sneak him into the school and find an isolated spot, such as the p.e.
room, to change him back to his girl form.

"Can you believe this?" Ryouga asked, shaking his stained shirt at
Ranma.  Luckily, he carried a spare in his backpack. After all, YOU get
lost for weeks on end all the time and see how long it is before you're
packing spare clothes.

"Truthfully? Yes." Ranma answered. "You've had a curse as long as me.
You should know that the wrong sort of water will splash over you at
the worst possible time. It has before. You should feel lucky it
happened here and not at lunch time in the school yard in front of a
hundred students."

"Damn that idea." Ryouga said. "I will keep this curse a secret, if its
the last thing I do. I will not be looked down upon by everyone at
school for this." He stuffed the dirty shirt into his backpack as the
three walked through the school gates.

"Now just act cool, and no-one will notice you." Ranma assured.

"I'll get a glass of water, you head to the p.e. room." Akane said as
she headed off.

"I guess from now on I should pack a thermos of cold water." Ryouga
said. "I must admit, I usually do keep a flask of water, but I...uh...
forgot to refill it after my last..... trip."

"Doesn't matter." Ranma said, reassuringly. "You worry about your curse
too much. I've actually been here all week, and the only one who's seen
it was Kunou. And he was too stupid to figure it out."

"I've got to tell you the truth, Ranma." Ryouga said as he looked
around to make sure no-one was close. "I'm not sure if it would have
mattered about my curse before lunch yesterday, but now....."

"What? What happened at lunch?" Ranma asked, confused. "You mean that
thing where the girls dressed you up? Ah, that's nothing."

"No, Ranma, its not. They thought I was a girl, and so they treated me
as one.  They told me things they'd only tell a girl. And you remember
what happened when Akane found out we weren't girls, right? She was
ready to kill us!"

"You don't think it had something to do with her seeing us in the bath,
and us seeing her?" Ranma asked dubiously.

"But them changing me in the girls lockers is basically the same thing,
Ranma.  Don't you see? If they find out about my curse now, I'm going
to be branded as the biggest pervert ever. I can't handle that. I don't
know how I'm going to keep my curse secret, but I swear, I _will_ do
it."

"Wait a second." Ranma said, stopping walking. "What do you mean, they
changed you in the girls lockers?"

"You don't think I put that dress on voluntarily, did you?" Ryouga
asked as he also stopped. "They ganged up on me, stripped me, and threw
me into that girl's stuff."

"You're right." Ranma said. "If they ever find out you're a guy,
they'll kill you."

"Thanks, Ranma, you're a real help." Ryouga said sarcastically.

"I'm serious. Ok, ok, I swear I'll help you keep your secret, but I
honestly don't know how long we can keep up this charade. Can you take
being a girl every day? Can you act like a girl? How long before you
get hit by hot water?  Like a shower?" Ranma's eyes bugged as he
realised something. "How the hell are you going to get changed for
sport? You think Akane's going to let you change in the girl's lockers?
You think that even if she did, that you could handle it without
freaking out like you always do with girls? I don't think so. You've
been a half-girl for months now, and you still pass out when you see
even a hint of naked flesh."

"So I'm shier than you." Ryouga said evenly. "Look, I'll work something
out."

But Ranma wasn't about to let up. He had given this some idle thought
over the days that Ryouga had been away. Not that he had expected
Ryouga to be pretending to be a girl for more than that first day, but
it had been something to think about instead of boring school work.
"But what about _after_ sport, when you have to take a shower to get
clean? You can't do it in the boys lockers, Akane and your own....
shyness, if you're gonna call it that, will stop you from doing it in
the girls. And even if, for arguments sake, you could shower in the
girls lockers, you couldn't dare risk it. Even if you yourself took a
cold shower, the others wouldn't be. There'd be too much chance of you
getting hit with hot water. You have got a lot of thinking to do, if
you want to keep your curse a secret."

"I get the bloody idea, alright!?" Ryouga shouted. He continued in a
normal tone, "Look, I'll give it some thought. There has to be a way."

Ranma took some pity on him. "Look, don't worry about it too much. Just
take what comes as it does. Although I can't believe what a mess one
mistake Nabiki made, added to one lunch time's activities can make."

Ryouga nodded in agreement. He looked around and said "This isn't the
best place for a conversation anyway. I'm supposed to be keeping a low
profile, so that no-one connects me to Ryoko, right?"

"Right." Ranma said, nodding. "Come on." he started walking again. "So,
tell me. Tell me what happened on your latest trip." Ranma almost
always waited a couple of days after Ryouga had come back from a trip
before asking him about it. Practically every trip Ryouga had been on
had been the 'worst one of his life'. It was just the way Ryouga was.
After a couple of days, he was usually calm enough to talk about them,
and it helped him calm down.

"Well, there's this girl I saw. She wore a red mask, and the thing
is....." Ryouga began. He'd been dying to tell Ranma about that
particular bit of his journey.

"Saotome!" Kunou's voice shouted out. "The vengeance of heaven shall
strike down upon you today!"

Ranma groaned. Ryouga grinned and said, "Hey, I promised to go easy on
him, remember? Its your turn to take him."

Kunou raced up to the two boys. "Ranma, I do not know what you have
done to spite Ryoko against me, but I am here to defeat your hold over
her."

Ryouga shook his head as Ranma and Kunou began to fight. He was in way
too good a mood at the moment to get angry at Kunou's ridiculous
attitude to his girl side. Besides, he hadn't actually seen Kunou fight
yet. Ranma said that Kunou was a decent fighter when he was up against
a guy, and he was right.  Ranma was obviously in control of the fight,
but Kunou was making a good showing of himself. The usual crowd had
begun to form around the fight.

Ranma leapt within Kunou's defences and kicked him in the side before
leaping back out again. The force of the blow caused several small
white rectangular objects to flutter out of Kunou's uniform.

Ryouga curiously stepped over and picked up what turned out to be
several photos. He idly flicked through them as Ranma continued to leap
around Kunou.  Let's see... Akane lifting barbells, Akane jogging,
Ranma-chan sleeping in boxers and loose shirt on a futon, Ryouga-chan
topless, her front to the camera, Akane breaking some bricks.... wait a
second. Ryouga flipped back to the last photo. There was his girl form,
only dressed in boxer shorts (the girls had admonished Ryouga-chan for
wearing boxers, but had let it slide), the school dress she had worn
home from school hanging from an arm. Her breasts were clearly
viewable.

Ranma leaped back from a vicious swipe of Kunou's boken. He had had
enough of this fight, it was time to end it. He narrowed his eyes
slightly, waiting for the exact right moment to breach Kunou's
defences. He tensed as Kunou began to run towards him again.

"Stop." a chilled voice rang out. The amazing thing was that both Ranma
and Kunou did. They both turned to the person who had spoken out.
Ryouga stood staring at Kunou, a picture in his hand. Ryouga's face was
stony.

"Who are you, and what are you doing with my property?" Kunou asked.
"But wait, is it not the custom to give my name first? I am..."

"I know who you are." Ryouga said, his voice sounding slightly
strangled.

Ranma was worried. Ryouga was not acting normal. What was wrong with
him?

"Explain this." Ryouga said, showing the picture of his female form so
that Kunou and Ranma could see it.

[Oh.] Ranma thought. [Shit.] He had been worried this might happen. He
had been annoyed when he saw Kunou with pictures of his girl form, but
he knew that Ryouga would go berserk if he saw Kunou with pictures of
his own female form. Ranma knew that he was about to be proven right.
To make matters worse, the photo was of Ryouga-chan topless. Ranma was
an almost stupidly brave man.  He would fight anyone, anytime (unless
they were a girl.). This fight, however, had just become none of his
business. Ranma walked off to join Akane, who was at the front of the
crowd.

"What's happening?" Akane asked, as she held a glass of water in her
hand.

"Lets just say that I think Ryouga is about to break that promise about
hurting Kunou, and I can't blame him. I think Nabiki might be in
trouble when Ryouga catches up with her too."

Kunou, meantime, was answering Ryouga's question with some arrogance.
"I do not see how that is any of your business, peon. Give me your
name."

"I am Hibiki Ryouga." Ryouga said.

The crowd began muttering. 'Did he say Hibiki?' 'Hey, isn't Ryoko a
Hibiki too?' 'I wonder if they're related?' 'Well he looks like Ryoko.'
'Yeah, and he's got the same sort of bandanna she's got as well.'.

"Hibiki?" Kunou asked. "What relation do you have to sweet Ryoko?"

Ryouga's answer was to crack his knuckles, so Ranma decided to shout
from the sidelines "Hey Kunou, I see you've met Ryoko's brother!"

Akane turned to Ranma. "Brother?"

Ranma shrugged. "I swore I'd help him keep his secret. People are going
to guess that Ryouga is related somehow to Ryoko. This way, they don't
have to think about it."

"Brother, eh?" Kunou said. "Truly, your sister..."

Ryouga had had enough. He attacked. Kunou desperately swung at Ryouga
as Ryouga charged him. Ryouga grabbed the swinging boken and tore it
from Kunou's grasp. He grasped the boken in his hands and snapped it in
half. Kunou stared at Ryouga in shock. This man had just grabbed a
boken in mid-swing, without showing any pain from doing so. Now, Kunou
was weaponless, and his unarmed skills were basic to say the least. He
was in trouble.

Ryouga grabbed Kunou by the neck. He lifted him off the ground. "How
dare you have pictures like this?" Ryouga seethed at Kunou as Kunou
started to turn blue.

"Urk." Kunou replied.

"Who gave you these pictures?" Ryouga asked, his voice hard.

"Urgle." Kunou gasped out as his face whitened.

Ryouga loosened his grip a bit to let Kunou speak. "Who?"

"*gasp* Nabiki." Kunou managed.

"Thank you." Ryouga said. He tightened his grip again, and raised Kunou
as high above him as he could. Putting all his strength into it, he
slammed Kunou into the ground. Several people in the crowd winced in
pain as they saw this happen.

Ryouga nudged Kunou, who groaned in response. Still alive. Good, that
meant he didn't have any moral problems to worry about. He faced the
crowd, his mind a lot clearer than it had been for the last few
minutes. [So, I'm Ryoko's brother, am I?] he thought. [At least Ranma
was able to help me help myself.]

"Let it be known!" he shouted to the crowd. "I am Hibiki Ryouga,
brother to Ryoko. Anyone, no matter who they are, who buys pictures of
my sister, especially ones showing her undressed, shall face me! And
next time, I shall not be so gentle!"

Ryouga walked over to Ranma. "Get me out of here." he whispered. Ranma
nodded, and, with Akane, led Ryouga off.

The crowd looked at Kunou's mangled body. Until Ranma had come, no-one
had been able to beat Kunou. Except Akane, and many had questioned if
Kunou let her win. Ranma had beaten Kunou, but even he had not taken
him out so easily.  One boy piped up "Well, I guess there's some yen
saved. I'm sure as hell not buying those pictures with a psycho brother
like that protecting her." Several other boys nodded in agreement, as
one sweated profusely, looking at several white squares sticking out of
his pocket. He sidled over to a rubbish bin and, after ripping up the
photos, placed the tatters inside.

***********************************************

In the p.e. room, Ryouga-chan seethed. Ranma and Akane looked at each
other worriedly.

"How could she do this?" Ryouga-chan asked, waving the picture around.
"Damn it, it might not be my true body, but it's still me. How dare she
take pictures of me naked? How could she invade my privacy like that?
How could she sell them to Kunou?"

"Ranma." Akane began, turning to look at him. "Please leave. I've got
to talk to Ryouga about Nabiki, and I'd prefer it if you didn't hear
it."

Any other time Ranma would have been insulted. Right now, he was
worried too much about Ryouga's mental state for that. Ryouga could
have killed Kunou.  Ryouga might still kill Nabiki. Maybe Akane could
calm Ryouga down.

Ranma nodded, and left. Akane turned back to Ryouga-chan and sighed.
She still didn't know much about this guy. Ryouga seemed so vulnerable
at times, at others he seemed consumed with anger. On one of their few
civil talks, Ranma had told Akane that Ryouga was a man consumed by
loneliness. Ranma had been his only friend, and he was alone for days
on end when he got lost. Ryouga had had an empty existence, and he was
scarred by it. He was angry at the world, partly because of his
Jusenkyo curse, partly because of his directional curse. Ranma had told
her that he sometimes felt depressed just being around Ryouga. Akane
hadn't really understood that comment until now. She felt depressed
just looking at Ryouga-chan, who was looking at the picture of herself,
a sad look on her face.

"Ryouga." Akane began. Ryouga-chan looked up at her, but said nothing.
"Ryouga, you've got to understand some things about Nabiki. She's not a
cruel person. She's the one who basically finances the dojo, not Daddy.
She sells those photos to make money to help our family survive. That's
why I've never really tried to stop her before. She's never sold
pictures of me in anything too... compromising. I guess she thought she
could go a bit further with you and Ranma because these aren't your
true bodies. She was right with Ranma, he was just annoyed. But, I
guess, with you she was wrong."

"Damn it Akane, if she wanted to know if I was alright with having
these sort of pictures taken, then she would come up to me and ask. I'm
not alright with them. And I'm not alright with how she took them. Its
obvious she took these from outside my window. That's not right. It's
unfair to me. Ranma has handled his new body better than me. He doesn't
see it as being his true form, so he doesn't get embarrassed if someone
sees him naked as a girl. I don't think that way. The girl side is
still me, just with some added baggage. I get just as embarrassed about
someone seeing me naked as a girl as I do as a guy. Probably more so.
So she might have looked at it as just a harmless picture, but I see it
as a picture of me, naked, being sold to guys like I was.... I don't
know. But I don't like it. And I won't sit by and let Nabiki get away
with it."

Akane sighed. "I can understand you wanting to get back at her, but
what are you going to do? I can't let you hurt her physically. Like I
said, she is not really a cruel person, just a little mercenary. And
you can't hurt her in any other way....... or maybe you already have."

"What do you mean?" Ryouga-chan asked, interested.

"That little speech you gave to that crowd. Considering what you did to
Kunou, I doubt anyone is going to be buying pictures of you now. So, in
a way, you've already got the best revenge on Nabiki."

"Really? I just did that to try and stop people from buying them. I
didn't think it'd really affect Nabiki."

"Oh, it will affect her alright. If there's one thing she hates, its
lost business opportunities." Akane said, smiling.

Ryouga-chan smiled in return. "Well, I guess its the best revenge I can
hope for."

"See, now there's something you should do more often." Akane said.
"Smile. You look so much better when you're smiling."

"I guess I've never had much to smile about. Still, it's worth a try."
Ryouga-chan replied, widening her smile.

"Come on, we're already late for school. We'd best go take our
punishment."

Ryouga-chan nodded, standing up. She pocketed the picture.

Akane, noticing this, asked "You're taking that with you?"

"Well I'm sure as hell not leaving it around for someone to find."
Ryouga-chan answered.

"No, I guess not. I'd pity the person who took it if you did leave it
though!" Akane said, laughing, as she left for class.

Ryouga-chan laughed too. Perhaps Ranma was lucky to have this
engagement after all. When she let her guard down, Akane was very nice.
Now all Ryouga had to do was beat it into Ranma that Akane should be
appreciated.

***********************************************

The girls had spirited Ryouga-chan away again at lunch time, this time
to ask about the incident that morning.

"Was that really your brother, Ryoko?" one asked as they all sat down
at the same tree they were at yesterday.

"Well, yes." Ryouga-chan answered, hoping she could lie without being
found out.

"Boy, he was really angry at Kunou. What was his problem?" another
asked.

Ryouga-chan considered for a moment, then pulled the picture out of her
pocket. After all, they were all girls, it meant nothing if they saw
it.  Besides, this group had already seen her topless yesterday when
they forced her into that dress. "He saw Kunou with this." she said
showing the others the picture. "He wasn't too happy about it."

"Oh." a girl said. "I guess your brother had good reason after all."

"That's horrible." another added. "I'd die if a picture of me like that
was being fondled by the guys, especially one like Kunou."

"So, a brother defending his sister's honour." the first girl said,
sighing.  "He was pretty cute. I guess those fangs of yours run in the
family."

Several of the girls who had been at the fight sighed. Ryouga-chan was
starting to blush again. [Damn, I'm just digging myself deeper with
this secret. These girls would never speak to me again if they found
out.]

"So, is he coming to this school too?" a girl asked, a bit hopefully.

"What?" Ryouga-chan asked, a bit shocked. His brain turned over for a
few seconds, trying to think up a good lie, until he just said "No. He
goes to another school. He just came today to visit me."

"Oh. Oh well." the girl said, shrugging her shoulders.

***********************************************

Nabiki was in the usual spot she occupied when she was doing business.
She had the feeling something had happened this morning while she was
out getting some photos processed, something important that she wasn't
being told of. She hated being in the dark. Several people were giving
her a wide berth, and everyone refused to talk about whatever it was.

To make matters worse, the run of pictures she had made of Ryouga-chan
weren't selling as well as she had hoped. When she had shown the
preliminary round this morning, several boys expressed interest. So,
she sold the photos she had to the two highest bidders, Kunou and some
other guy, then went to a nearby photo processing store whose owner
knew her and didn't ask questions for a small cut.

She ordered several batches of photos to be made, and returned for them
at the beginning of lunch. The photos of Ryouga-chan topless were even
more popular than ones of Ranma-chan, possibly because no-one knew who
Ranma-chan was, but 'Ryoko' was a girl that they saw, that they knew to
be at school. It gave an added interest to photos of her.

Now, Nabiki was back from the photo lab, and no-one was buying them. If
she couldn't sell them than she was losing money. Not an incredible
amount, but Nabiki hated to lose money at any time. And where was
Kunou? He might not be the brightest pupil, but he didn't normally miss
school. Nabiki had seen him this morning (she had sold pictures to him,
of course she saw him) but he wasn't at class. The usual beating that
Ranma, Akane, or Ryouga-chan gave him never stopped him from being in
class.

She saw one of the boys who had shown a lot of interest in the photos
when shown them that morning walk by. "Kenji!" she called. "So, can I
interest you in the photos you saw this morning?"

Kenji turned to Nabiki, saw what photos she was talking about, and
began to sweat. "Are you crazy?" he asked as he backpedalled away. "I'm
not going to die, not even for photos like that!"

Nabiki stared at the retreating boy in shock. [Die?] she thought. I
have got to find out what happened this morning. With a determined look
on her face, she marched off to where the gossipers usually hanged out.
They were a free source of information, and they knew an incredible
amount about what went on both in and out of the school. They'd know
what happened, and Nabiki wasn't going to give up until she found out.

***********************************************

Nabiki was a bit pale as she walked into the Tendo house. She had found
out more than she really wanted to when she went to talk to the
gossips. Kunou was in hospital, and wouldn't be out for another two
days. Apparently Kunou was swearing vengeance on some guy, but at the
same time, refusing to id.  him to police. Apparently Kunou wanted to
be the one to catch the guy who had beaten him. And that guy was
Ryouga.

Nabiki was far from stupid. She knew why Ryouga had wiped the floor
with Kunou. It was those pictures. She hadn't expected this sort of
response from him. Ranma had shouted at Nabiki for maybe a minute when
he saw pictures of himself before giving up and walking away. Ryouga
had brutally beaten a guy, and Nabiki was starting to realise she
didn't know him well enough yet to know what, if anything, he would do
to her.

She had made a quick visit to Kunou at the hospital, just to make sure
that it was Ryouga who had done it, and so she wasn't surprised to see
that Ranma and Akane were home before her.

She walked up to her room, thinking about what had happened. Why did
Ryouga get so upset? It wasn't his real form. What was there really to
be upset about? She stopped as she entered her room. There was Ryouga,
sitting in the chair at her desk. He was looking at her calmly, her
camera (well, one of them, she had a couple) in his hand.

"So I guess you're here to rage at me about how I've abused your trust,
right?" Nabiki asked him.

Ryouga sighed. "I don't see the point. I've already effectively stopped
people from buying the pictures. I have to wonder if anything I say to
you would make a difference anyway. Akane told me that you wouldn't
have sold those pictures if you really thought I'd be hurt by them. So,
here's your chance. I can bet that what I did to Kunou won't change his
feelings towards my girl side. He will probably still want photos of
me. I saw what you sold him of Akane. They were ok. Suggestive, but
they didn't show anything. I know I can't stop you from taking pictures
of me, not without hurting you. I am not a bad guy. I don't go out with
the intention of hurting people. And I don't intend on hurting you. So,
here's the best compromise I will ever do. I can accept you selling
photos of me, as long as I'm not naked or semi-naked. Prove to me that
you're not bad either. Don't abuse my trust."

With that, he set the camera down and left.

***********************************************

Nabiki arrived at the table a bit late for dinner. She had had some
thinking to do. It had seemed like such an easy source of income. When
she had found out about the two boys curses, she had thought that there
could be some profit in it. Nothing had sprung to mind until she saw
the way Ranma acted in his female body. Nabiki had seen more of 'his'
flesh when he was a girl then him as a boy. Ranma just didn't get shy
as a girl, he had walked around topless on a couple of occasions, and
he was always taking his shirt off to wring it dry when he fell in the
pond.

And so Nabiki had her answer. The way to make money off of their cursed
forms was to take shots of them topless or in other risque poses. She
felt no moral compunctions because Ranma didn't care what people saw of
his female body, and presumably neither did Ryouga. If they found out
about the pictures, they wouldn't get too upset because it wasn't their
true forms. And the hentais at school, Kunou chief amongst them, would
pay dearly for the sort of photos she could get of the two half-girls.
A nice, simple money making scheme with no real moral problems.

But now there was. She had never found out how Ryouga viewed his girl
body before she took snaps of it. Nabiki had just assumed he would have
a similar view to Ranma. Ryouga's treatment of Kunou had proven
otherwise. He might not be a real girl, but taking pictures of him in
that form had the same effect on him as it would for a real girl. Damn,
he was shy about his body. And he had said he was giving Nabiki a
chance to show that she was not as cruel as some had thought Ryouga was
for his fight with Kunou. It had meant some soul searching.

But that didn't mean she should go hungry while searching. She sat down
at the table, not bothering to look at the other occupants as she
grabbed some food.  She looked up and saw that everyone was there
except for Ryouga.

"Where's Ryouga?" she asked.

"You mean he's not in your room?" Ranma asked.

"We thought he was still talking to you." Akane added.

Ranma groaned as he felt a headache coming on. "He's gone and gotten
lost again, the idiot."

***********************************************

Ryouga looked around him. This was not the Tendo Dojo. He was lost
again, but this time he didn't have his pack. He saw an outdoor and
camping shop and smiled. Luck was with him this time. Soon, he had all
he needed to survive one of his trips. The shop had even sold food and
the type of bamboo umbrellas he used (although none were as super heavy
as the one he used.). He payed for his new possessions with a credit
card. (One of the first things a Hibiki is ever given by their parents
is a credit card and an automatic teller card.  What, how did you think
that Ryouga could always replace his clothes and backpack when he lost
them? And how did you think he could afford all those souvenirs and
food gifts? The Hibiki's had lit candles to the gods the day that
electronic banking was invented. Ryouga's family was actually fairly
rich.  His father was a successful business man: he kept finding new
markets to explore, and people from the strangest of places did
business with his company because they had met him. Funds were
automatically transferred into Ryouga's account, and his credit card
was automatically payed. The reason why Ryouga was poor most of the
time was because he couldn't find a bank to withdraw his money from.)

Ryouga sighed as he settled his new backpack on his shoulders, a red
bamboo umbrella affixed to its top. These journeys were usually hell,
but he felt in his heart that he really needed some time away right
now. Some time alone.

Ryouga looked around. He was at an intersection. He took the Hibiki
time honoured method of travel decision, and chose the way to go at
random.

***********************************************

Ryouga surprised everyone by being lost for only a couple of days. He
went to school as a girl, and fought off Kunou every time Kunou got too
amorous.  In an attempt to control himself, he even gave Kunou less
injuries then he used to, just to show that he was a nice guy.

Kunou was finding it hard to get more of those pictures of Ryoko that
he had once paid so dearly for. If he ever saw that villain Ryouga
again, he would punish him severely for stealing his only copies. When
Kunou asked Nabiki if she had anymore photos of Ryoko, she gave him
some samples. Ryouga-chan sparring with Ranma-chan. Ryouga-chan in boys
uniform walking to school.  Ryouga-chan lifting a couch with Ranma and
Akane still sitting on it so that Kasumi could vacuum under it.
Ryouga-chan and Ranma-chan at the pool, both in one piece swimsuits,
with Ryouga-chan looking slightly embarrassed at what she was wearing.
But none as good as that glorious first set that Nabiki had sold him.
When he asked her if she had any more of those, she had said that she
wasn't selling those sorts of pictures anymore. And then promptly
offered him a set of shots of Ranma-chan in various compromising
positions, including one with her shirt off, wringing it dry after a
workout.

Ryouga-chan had still managed to keep her secret. It wasn't easy. Once,
only her quick reflexes had saved her from being splashed by a Bunsen
full of hot water in chemistry class. She got splashed at least four
times by cold water, but that didn't affect her when she was already in
her cursed state.

On the fifth day back from his second trip since coming to Furinkan,
Nabiki told him that she had finally got what she needed to get the man
responsible for registration to change the records back. It was time
for a decision.

Ryouga sighed as he looked at Nabiki. She had been true to her word.
First, she hadn't sold more pictures of his girl side that he couldn't
handle.  Secondly, she had finally got what she needed to fix that
registration problem. He could stop masquerading as a girl.

Or, to be more exact, he couldn't. Like he had told Ranma before, he
thought it was too late to safely switch back to being a guy. The
school still didn't know about Ranma's curse, but there had been some
close calls. Ryouga, while in girl form, had once been splashed with
cold water in front of fifty students (it had been a prank by some guy
who hadn't found Ryouga-chan's reaction to being dripping wet so funny
after she 'chastised' him.).

"Nabiki, thank you." he said. "But please don't change those records
back. At least, not yet. I'd be killed by my friends if they found out
I was a guy now.  Maybe by next semester I'll have found a cure for
this curse, and I can be a boy again then. But for now, I'm going to
still pretend I'm a girl."

Nabiki shook her head. All that effort for nothing. Still, he was
right. He had painted himself into a corner. He had made friends with a
fairly high number of girls, had heard some compromising things from
them that they would never had told a guy. If he turned up as a guy
again, his curse would be revealed sooner or later, and he'd have a lot
of angry females after him. At least if he stayed a girl, he'd have a
better chance of hiding it. Hot water was a lot rarer than cold at the
school.

[Maybe I should start up a betting pool with the family on how long he
can manage to keep this a secret.] she thought idly. She thought about
blackmailing him about his secret, but then thought about just how
unstable he seemed at times, and decided that there were safer ways to
make money.

A week went by. Ryouga continued to go to school as a girl. Then he got
lost again.

"I have to admit, I'm impressed." Ranma noted to Akane as they walked
to school. They hadn't been able to find Ryouga this morning, so the
inevitable conclusion was made. "This has to be the longest he's ever
managed to stay anywhere without getting lost. We'll have to throw a
party when he gets back."

***********************************************

"Get back here Ranma!" Akane shouted as she chased Ranma through the
school grounds.

"Come and get me!" Ranma shouted as he looked back at her. Suddenly,
his senses pricked. [Trouble.] he thought, and he looked up.

Silouhetted by the sun, a figure was leaping towards him, some sort of
weapon in his hand. "Ranma! Prepare to die!" the stranger shouted as he
slammed the weapon towards Ranma, who deftly dodged before flipping
back out of attack range.

A boy stood there looking at Ranma. He had long dark brown hair, tied
in a ponytail by a white ribbon. He was dressed in a boys school
uniform, of a different colour and cut to the Furinkan style. He wore a
bandolier full of small spatulas, each of which was about the length of
a hand. The weapon he had used to attack Ranma with was a giant
spatula, about six feet in length.  Its blade was buried deep into the
ground where Ranma had been standing. If it had of hit, it probably
would have killed him.

"Still good at running away, Ranma. But then, that was always what you
were best at." the boy said as he pried his strange weapon out of the
pavement.

"Someone you know?" Akane asked Ranma in a part resigned, part annoyed
voice.

Ranma thought about it. He thought about it some more. He groaned.
"He's sorta familiar, but I can't....."

"Perhaps this will refresh your memory." the boy said as he pulled a
portable grill out of nowhere and prepared something with incredible
speed. He pulled a finished okonomiyaki off the grill and threw it at
Ranma.

Ranma caught it before looking at it. A silly face was drawn on it in
sauce.  "Wait! I remember! You're.... you're" he shouted as he pointed
at the boy.

The boy pulled out four of the small spatulas from the bandolier. With
a chuckle, he threw them at Ranma. "For ten years I have hunted you!"
he shouted.

Ranma leapt over the missiles, causing the people behind him to have to
dodge madly, as he landed next to the strange boy and slapped him on
the shoulder in a friendly manner. "Ucchan!" he cried. "From the
okonomiyaki yatai!"

"You were friends?" Akane asked.

"Yeah, we..." Ranma began.

"You were never my friend!" Ukyou shouted as he swung at Ranma with his
big spatula. Ranma dodged by quickly stepping back. Ukyou continued to
speak. "It was all a big lie to you. You pretended to be my friend, all
the while laughing behind my back!"

"What? I never..." Ranma began.

"Hear me Saotome! I will have my revenge, by ruining your happiness."
Ukyou cried. He pulled a small bag of flour out of his shirt and threw
it in front of him, ripping it as he did so to create a smoke screen of
flour.

After the flour settled, and it was apparent that Ukyou was gone, Ranma
turned to Akane and asked "Am I happy?".

"I have no idea." Akane answered.

***********************************************

Nighttime at the Tendo residence. Akane and Nabiki were sitting at the
dining table, drinking tea, while Ranma-chan sat on the porch, dressed
only in her black pants, a towel covering her breasts.

"Just what did you do to this Ukyou?" Akane asked.

"Believe me, I wish I knew." Ranma-chan answered. "I can't think of
anything.  We met when we were both six years old, we became the best
of friends, and then one day Pop and I went on our way, to continue my
training."

Kasumi walked in, holding an okonomiyaki in her hands. "Ranma, there's
a challenge here for you from a boy called Kuonji Ukyou."

She handed Ranma-chan the okonomiyaki, which had written on it, in
sauce, 'I challenge you to fight, after school tomorrow. In the school
grounds. Be there. -Ukyou'

"Interesting way to send a challenge." Nabiki noted.

"How did he get so much writing on one okonomiyaki?" Akane wondered.

"Damn it, why is he so angry at me?" Ranma-chan asked herself as she
pounded her fist into her other hand.

***********************************************

The next day, Ranma and Akane found out that Ukyou was in their class
for school. When Ranma tried to talk to him, Ukyou stonily replied that
anything he had to say could be said at the challenge.

After school, the usual crowd seeking free entertainment (and blood,
around Nerima, the two were usually seen together.) gathered outside
the school to see Ukyou, dressed in an okonomiyaki outfit, standing in
the middle of a ring, which was similar to a boxing ring. There was one
big difference, however. Only about the inside half of the ring had a
wooden floor.  Surrounding this inner box, stood an outer ring made out
of some sort of metal.

As Nabiki wandered around the crowd, making her usual money out of
fights from bets and charging admittance (some people still fell for
that), the crowd stared at the unusual ring. 'Whoa, check out the
ring.' 'What is that?' 'I heard Ranma's going to fight the new kid!'
'What is that metal bit?'. One of the students touched the metallic
outer part, and pulled his hand back in shock and pain. 'It's.. it's
hot. It's a gigantic hot plate!' he shouted. The crowd gasped at this.

Ranma landed lightly on one of the corner posts. "Hiya Ucchan." he
said.

Ukyou turned to him, drawing his combat spatula. He trembled from rage
as he said "We are here to duel." He swiped at Ranma, who leapt over
Ukyou to land in the ring. "So stop calling me that name!" Ukyou
finished as he turned to face Ranma again.

"Why not? I thought you liked it when I called you that! Why can't we
be friends like before?" Ranma asked.

"We can never be friends!" Ukyou shouted as he swiped at Ranma again.

So the fight went. Ukyou would swing and miss Ranma, while he would try
and talk it out.

"You're the most stubborn guy I've met." Ranma noted irritably.

"Rrrrr!" Ukyou growled as he threw five of his throwing spatulas at
Ranma.  Ranma dodged desperately, accidently burning his hand on the
hot plate part of the ring in the process. One of the spatulas whizzed
by, cutting his shirt across the chest.

"Try this on for size." Ukyou said as he grabbed a bucket. "Tempura
flakes..." he threw the contents of the bucket at Ranma, who was still
on the hot plate section. "... mixed with gunpowder." The flakes
exploded, sending up a cloud of smoke. "Maybe now you'll fight me like
a man!" Ukyou shouted.

The smoke cleared to reveal a still quite healthy Ranma. "So I don't
fight like a man, hey? Well, since you were a friend once, I'll be nice
and settle this somewhere less dangerous." With that, he kicked Ukyou
out of the ring and leapt to follow him.

***********************************************

Ryouga looked around him. Palm trees, white sandy beaches, big volcano
in the background, tropical birds flying overhead...... I guess this
isn't Tokyo. He looked up ahead and saw a Typical Native Village(TM),
consisting of straw huts, kept together by mud. The homely look was
somewhat marred by the satellite dishes hanging off of practically
every hut.

As he walked into the village, he was met by the village chief, who was
dressed in a three piece suit. "Hi there." the chief said. "You're just
in time."

"For what?" Ryouga asked.

"To be sacrificed to the volcano god, of course. Now hurry up, Oprah's
on in twenty minutes."

"I thought volcano sacrifices were supposed to be female?" Ryouga
asked, just as he tripped over a stone in the path and fell into a
trough full of water.

The chief gasped as Ryouga-chan looked at her wet form irritably.
"Well, you'll never do for a sacrifice. The volcano god doesn't like
cross dressers."

"I am not a cross dresser!" Ryouga-chan answered angrily as she stepped
out of the trough.

"Sure you're not." the chief replied.

"Look, do you know where Nerima is?" Ryouga-chan asked, eager to be
away from here.

"Sure. It's thataway." the chief said, pointing in a direction.

"Thank you." Ryouga-chan answered as she walked off.

"Of course, to get there you have to cross two thousand miles of
ocean." the chief continued, then saw that Ryouga-chan was gone. "Oh
well."

***********************************************

Ukyou landed on top of a concrete block covered in water taps. Seeing
Ranma flying towards him, his foot extended, Ukyou leapt off just as
Ranma ploughed right through the water fountain.

Water blasted from a burst pipe, changing Ranma to his cursed form.
Ukyou avoided getting wet by deflecting the water coming at him with
his combat spatula. Ukyou scrambled away from the slowly spreading pool
of water before turning to face Ranma.

"Well, Ukyou?" Ranma-chan said, in a fighting stance, the rip in her
shirt making her gender obvious.

"Wha...what..." Ukyou stuttered. "Ranma?"

"Of course I'm...." Ranma-chan looked down and saw that he was a she.
"Oh."

Akane stepped up behind Ranma-chan. The rest of the crowd hadn't made
it to the fight yet. "What, you didn't know you were a girl again?"

"You...you..." Ukyou stuttered. He was turning red from fury.

"Well, why don't you laugh?" Ranma-chan asked. "I don't know what's
happened to you, Ukyou, but look at me. Cursed with a girl's body, and
I don't get bitter about it."

"How....dare you?" Ukyou hissed. He was now purple with rage. His
entire frame was shaking. "How dare you whine about being turned into a
girl?" He ripped four throwing spatulas from his bandolier and threw
them at Ranma-chan.

Ranma-chan and Akane desperately dodged the spatula shuriken. Ukyou was
already running towards Ranma-chan, combat spatula at the ready.
Ranma-chan ducked Ukyou's swipe and kicked the spatula out of Ukyou's
hands. She then palmed Ukyou hard in the stomach.

The crowd arrived to see Ukyou fall back, the breath whooshing out of
him.  Ranma-chan walked over to Akane. "You all right?" she asked.

"I'm fine thank you very much, not that it...." Akane stopped as the
combat spatula, which had been lazily swinging in the air, landed right
behind her.  It missed her body, but unfortunately it shaved off her
long braid.

"A...Akane?" Ranma-chan asked, waving her hand in front of Akane's
face.  "She's in shock?"

"What do you expect?" a girl asked Ranma-chan angrily. "Caught in
public with a haircut like that!"

"You should know that!" another girl piped up. "What kind of girl are
you, anyway? Say, who are you?"

"Yeah, and where'd Ranma go?" a boy asked.

"Who cares about that?" Ranma-chan shouted. "What matters is Akane."

Ukyou stepped up. He twiddled his thumbs. "I'm sorry about this."

"If it'll cheer you up, hit me!" Ranma-chan added, standing next to
Ukyou.

"Me too. It's our fault you got that haircut." Ukyou said.

Akane shuffled off, as Ranma-chan and Ukyou slowly got up from the
punch Akane had given each of them.

Ukyou turned to Ranma-chan. "She doesn't keep her feelings bottled up,
does she?"

"You're telling me." Ranma-chan said, wincing from pain.

***********************************************

Nighttime. It was raining in Nerima. Not really an amazing revelation,
Nerima had some unusual weather patterns, in that it rained practically
every day.  Three days without rain was considered a drought in this
district.

Ukyou stood outside the Tendo residence, an umbrella with the word
okonomiyaki painted on it protecting him from the rain. He stared up at
the darkened windows, an angry expression on his face. "I tried to wait
to face you, Ranma.  But I could not ignore my need for revenge any
longer. Tonight you pay for the hell my life has become."

***********************************************

Dr Falgus, genius, mad scientist, bad guy, and karaoke singer
(certainly being mad, bad, and a karaoke singer weren't mutually
exclusive. You should hear some of the people I've heard at karaoke
bars.) laughed maniacally at his newest invention to stop his
arch-nemesis, Blongor the Indestructible Man. He had created a super
high tech unescapable prison. Now all he needed was someone to test it
on.

"Excuse me, could you tell me the way to the Tendo Dojo?" a tired voice
asked from behind the Doctor.

Falgus turned to face Ryouga. Shock played over the scientist's face
for a moment, until it was replaced with a smile. "Why, yes." he said
oilily. "It's right through there." He pointed to a darkened portal.

"Really? Thanks." Ryouga said and walked through the doorway.

Falgus, eyes glinting, pressed a big red button on a console. A very
big, very heavy door closed over the doorway, sealing it. He began
laughing again. "Ha!  No-one can escape once I have closed that door.
That poor fool is doomed!"

"No, I'm sorry. I guess the Dojo wasn't through there." Ryouga said to
the Doctor as he walked in from another door.

"Wait a second." the Doctor said. "You just walked in from there. But,
the only exit is over there, and that was sealed. And you just walked
out of a janitor's closet."

Ryouga shrugged. "I guess you can't help me then. Good day to you." He
walked out another door.

Dr Falgus looked over at his latest invention, now his latest failure.
If a mere human could defeat it so easily, what chance would it have
against his arch-rival? "Back to the drawing board, I guess." he
sighed.

Sometimes the life of a deranged villain, intent on taking over the
world, could get to be a real drag.

***********************************************

Ukyou stood over Ranma's sleeping form. Ranma was dressed in a light
shirt and boxer shorts. Some might ask why he slept with a shirt on,
but any who knew of his curse, and knew that Nabiki lived in the same
house would have understood completely. In fact, they'd be asking why
he didn't sleep in something that covered more of himself.

"Wake up Ranma. Its me, Ukyou." Ukyou said to Ranma.

Ranma's response was to continue snoring. Ukyou's eyes narrowed. He
knelt down so that his mouth was next to Ranma's ear before shouting
"WAKE UP!"

Ranma woke, as did Genma-Panda, who had been sleeping next to him.
Panda knocked both Ranma and Ukyou out the window, flashing a sign at
them saying {Quiet!}.

Ukyou landed lightly in the yard, his umbrella protecting him from the
rain.  Ranma was not as protected. He landed in the pond, the rain
and/or the pond serving to change him into his girl form.

"What? What?" Ranma-chan spluttered as she registered what was going
on.  "Ukyou." she said, standing, as she spotted her former friend.
"It's the middle of the night! What are you doing here?"

"I have waited ten years for my revenge. I will not wait a day longer."
Ukyou answered.

"Oh come on! Would you tell me what it is you think I've done already?"
Ranma-chan asked, annoyed.

"You left me behind. And when you did, I followed you. All the way to
China." Ukyou answered.

They looked at each other for a minute as Ranma-chan thought this over.
"You don't mean.... you went to Jusenkyo? That you turn into something
when you get wet?"

Ukyou flicked out a couple of throwing spatulas. "And, like everything
else in my life, it's All Your Fault!" He threw the spatulas at
Ranma-chan before unhefting his combat spatula. It wouldn't be easy to
use one handed, but rage made Ukyou capable. As Ranma-chan dodged the
spatula shuriken, Ukyou charged, swinging his combat spatula.

Ranma-chan desperately countered Ukyou's strikes. She couldn't dodge as
well as usual in all this mud and rain, and Ukyou was fighting as if he
was possessed. This was getting dangerous.

Ranma-chan backed up too quickly for her own safety. Her foot slid in
the mud, and she found herself flat on her back, staring up at an
enraged Ukyou.

Ukyou raised his combat spatula so that it was almost parallel to his
umbrella.  Just as he began a downward swing, a barbell clonked off of
his head.

"Got him!" Akane crowed from the porch, as Kasumi, who was standing
next to her, nodded approvingly.

Ukyou's eyes glazed over as his spatula and umbrella fell from his
hands.  Feeling the rain start to hit him, he came back to his senses,
and, with his arms covering his face in a desperate attempt to stop the
rain, he leapt over the fence.

"Ukyou!" Ranma-chan shouted.

"Ukyou?" Akane said. [So that's who it was.]

"Oh, it was only Ranma's friend." Kasumi said. "I thought it might have
been a burglar."

Ranma-chan ran after Ukyou. She soon found his clothes, but saw no sign
of whatever it was Ukyou might have turned into. [Ukyou's clothes. So,
he really did go to Jusenkyo. I have to find him.] Ranma-chan gathered
the clothes in her hands, noting that a long cloth bandage was lying
inside the shirt.  [Strange. I guess Ukyou must have got some sort of
injury in our previous fight.]

She started searching for anything that might be Ukyou.

***********************************************

A slightly damp Ryouga-chan peeked out from under her open umbrella at
the pouring rain with an expression of disgust on her face. [This is
unbelievable.] she thought. [I don't know why I bother carrying an
umbrella, the way these showers can whip up out of nowhere. Maybe I
should work on some sort of quickdraw for getting my umbrella out
before I get wet. Call it the Hibiki School Of Scrambling To Not Get
Wet or something. I guess I should be thankful that my cursed form is
human as well. I wonder what it would have been like to have an animal
shape for a cursed form.] She shuddered. [Too horrible to think about.
Hmmm.... I wonder where I am now?]

Ryouga-chan looked around, and felt a small ray of sunshine in her
heart as she saw the sign proclaiming the Tendo Dojo less than ten feet
away.  "Finally!" she shouted happily. "It's a hot bath for me !"
Ryouga had really started to fall in love with hot baths. He had been
partial to them before his curse, but now he loved them with an almost
unholy passion.

Quickly, almost skipping, Ryouga-chan walked through the entrance to
the Tendo residence. When she was almost at the door to the house, she
felt her senses prick. [Danger!] they screamed at her. She whirled
about to face the direction she felt the feeling from, dropping her
open umbrella in front of her to act as a shield. She saw a black blur
streak out of the darkness, and rebound off of the umbrella.
Ryouga-chan peeked over the umbrella to see who or what her attacker
was.

She was confronted with a small black piglet that was wearing a white
ribbon tied in a bow around its neck. The piglet was staring at her
suspiciously.  "Where did you come from?" Ryouga-chan asked, confused.
She stretched out a hand to the piglet, which scooted away a little bit
as she did so. "Come on little piggy. Come here, I won't hurt you."

The piglet stared at Ryouga-chan's outstretched hand for a few seconds
before relaxing, apparently having decided that she didn't pose any
threat.  Ryouga-chan scooped the piglet up into her arms. [Maybe Akane
bought a pet while I was away. I don't think any of the others in the
house are the sort to have a pet.] She looked down at the piglet, which
was wet and shivering, and had a bump on its head. [I guess I'd better
get you dry and fix that bump up. I wonder how you got that.]

It only took her fifteen minutes to find the bathroom, almost a record
for her. Ryouga-chan stripped off, missing the apprehensive glances the
piglet was throwing at the hot water in the bath. "All right then."
Ryouga-chan said after she had taken off the last of her clothes. She
scooped up the pig, which seemed to be struggling for some reason.
"Hey! Quit struggling piggy.  You'll feel much better after I get you
warmed up." The piglet redoubled its efforts, but it was all in vain.
Ryouga-chan was far too strong, her grip too vice-like for the animal
to have any chance of escape.

Ryouga-chan stepped into the hot bath, her sigh deepening in tone as
she changed back into a man. The piglet stopped struggling as it saw
Ryouga go through the change, its little piggy eyes widening into
saucers. Before it could recover from its shock, Ryouga let the piglet
loose into the water.

The piglet let out a squeal as it hit the water, a squeal that changed
in pitch to a human cry as the piglet expanded into the form of a naked
teenage girl. Ryouga looked at the girl in shock for a second before
his natural body defences kicked in, and he did the only thing he could
do. Blood erupted from his nose as he fainted.

***********************************************

Ryouga wakened to his face being slapped. Slowly he opened his eyes to
see that it was the piglet girl who was slapping him. Mercifully she
had found a bathrobe to wear. She was staring at Ryouga with a mixture
of concern and disgust on her face. Both of them were no longer in the
bath, but next to it instead.

"Could you stop that?" Ryouga asked calmly, as the girl was still
slapping him.

The girl stopped slapping him, flushing slightly in embarrassment.
"Sorry. Its just that I couldn't get you to wake up, so I got into a
rythym while slapping you."

"Um... who are you?" Ryouga asked.

"My name is Kuonji Ukyou. And you are...?"

"Hibiki Ryouga. So I guess you've been to Jusenkyo too, eh?"

The girl's face twisted in anger as she replied. "Yes. Jusenkyo. I wish
I had never heard of it." She looked Ryouga over and suddenly began
grinning.  "Still, this has to be one of the more..... interesting
positions the curse has put me in."

Ryouga looked down at himself and flushed as he realised that he was
still naked. Moving with a speed that he would probably kill for to
have in a fight, he grabbed a towel and wrapped it around himself.

"A bit late for that." the girl said, still grinning. She put on a mock
frown.  "And you owe me a new ribbon." she added, pointing to her
ribbon, which lay on the floor, covered in blood. "I used it to clean
you up. How could you bleed that much? Its disgusting."

Ryouga was in uncontrollable blush mode. In a desperate effort to take
his mind off of his situation, he asked "Don't take this wrong, Ukyou,
but why are you here? It can't be a coincidence that you have a
Jusenkyo curse too. Did the guide tell you about us?"

Ukyou's grin faded. "I am here for revenge against the man who was
responsible for my pain. I owe Saotome Ranma a lot of pain in return
for what he has done to me."

"Ranma? How is he responsible for your curse?"

The girl's face took on a far away look as she began to tell her story.
"About ten years ago, I met Ranma for the first time. I was... and am
an okonomiyaki chef. At the time, I was working with my father at his
yatai when a small boy about my age came barrelling up and snatched an
okonomiyaki of the griddle. My father berated me for letting the boy
get away with that, so the next day, when I saw the boy running towards
the yatai again I stepped into his path, ready to defend our
livelihood. He barrelled right over me. So I trained hard all day, but
the boy just ran right over me whenever he wanted. So began a cycle:
the boy, Ranma, would fight me, win, then take an okonomiyaki. I would
train hard for the rest of the day in the hopes of beating him the
next."

"Oh, so is that why you want revenge?"

"No! That was just a.... game between the two of us. We were the best
of friends at the time, the competition over the okonomiyaki was just a
way our parents found to train both of us. His father had encouraged
him to steal the okonomiyaki, and my father wasn't at all concerned
when I struck up a friendship with him. So, even though it was our
fathers who set us against each other, we quickly became the best of
friends. I..... fell in love with Ranma. I talked to my father about
it, and he talked to Ranma's father, offering his yatai as a dowry if
he engaged Ranma to me. Ranma's father agreed, but then he and Ranma
ran off with the yatai. Without me. I was derided because my fiance had
run out on me. So I gave up my femininity, and started dressing as a
boy. I trained long and hard, setting up my portable griddle next to
the raging sea, so that one day I may have my revenge against the man
who ruined my life."

Ukyou sighed, the memories were painful to her. "A few months ago, I
felt I was ready to take my revenge on Ranma, and so I sent out agents
to find out his whereabouts. Eventually I got word that he would be
travelling to the Qinghai province of China. I was so filled with a
need to see through my vengeance that I followed Ranma."

++++++++++++++++++++++ (Flashback:
 Ukyou, dressed as a boy in grey pants and a black shirt, wearing a
 backpack, her hair tied with a grey ribbon, is hiking along a mountain
 path. Suddenly, a large panda breaks through the bamboo in front of
 her. The path is too narrow to allow Ukyou any other choice but to
 jump over the panda. A red headed girl dressed in a white gi leaps out
 after the panda, shouting "Come back here Pop!"

 Unfortunately for Ukyou, the red-head apparently doesn't see her, and
 knocks her out of the way as she runs after the panda. Ukyou lets out
 a scream as she falls off of the cliff side. A second later, a hand
 grabs her flailing foot. The hand belongs to a girl with reddish brown
 hair, who seems to be having no trouble holding Ukyou up with only one
 arm. This new girl pulls Ukyou back to safety, saying "Sorry about
 that, we had something else on our mind. Gotta go, revenge waits for
 no ma....no-one." With that, the girl runs off after the panda and the
 other girl.

 Ukyou stands up and wipes the sweat off her brow. "Whew! That was
 close." she said, just as the ground below her crumbled under her
 weight. Ukyou desperately tried to grab the ledge as she fell, but
 just barely missed it.  She let out another scream as she fell, fell,
 fell into a pool. She felt something going horribly wrong with her
 body as soon as she touched the water. Within a few seconds, the pool
 had worked its magic, and instead of Ukyou, there was a small black
 piglet, a grey ribbon around its neck, desperately trying to stay
 afloat.

 A hand reached out and grabbed the piglet by the ribbon, pulling it
 out of the pool. The Guide looked at the piglet before sighing. "Not a
 good day to be at the springs it seems, Mr Customer. You should have
 been more careful, walking at the edge of a cliff like that."

 The piglet bukeed its protest. Its ears drooped as it thought about
 its current state.

 "Not to worry, Mr Customer. Though you fall in Spring of Drowned Black
 Pig, where baby black piglet drown one thousand two hundred year ago,
 it can be reversed."

 The little pig perked up. [There's a cure?] she thought.

 The Guide continued as he carried Ukyou-piglet back to his hut. "Hot
 water change you back into a man, but cold water will trigger the
 curse again. You be more careful around cold water from now on, hey?"

 The Guide entered his hut, where a wok full of water was boiling over
 a fire.  "Pity you aren't pig." the Guide noted. "Would have made good
 dinner." With that he dropped the piglet into the boiling water.

 Ukyou emerged from the wok a moment later, screaming out "Hot ! Hot !"

 The Guide stared at the naked woman in front of him for a moment
 before blushing and turning away. "Aiya! You sure looked like man when
 you were falling."

 Ukyou jumped out of the water, blushing as well. [A pig.] she thought
 to herself. [Why did it have to be a pig? And I'm going to turn into
 one every time I get hit with cold water? What sort of life is that?]
 Looking down at herself, she decided to set her priorities. "I don't
 suppose you have some clothes I can use?"

 The Guide, doing his best to not look at her, rummaged through his
 belongings, tossing a shirt, belt and pants to her. Ukyou looked at
 the clothes. Obviously the Guides, the pants would never do, being too
 big. The shirt, however, was long enough that it could act as a dress.
 She put the shirt on, tying it at the waist with the belt. She looked
 down at herself.  The shirt would do, for now, but in the long run she
 needed better clothes

 "I need to get my backpack out of that spring." she mused to herself.
 She had spare clothes there, and all her money was in her backpack as
 well.

 "Miss Customer best be careful around springs." the Guide warned. He
 pulled a stout branch which forked at the end out of a corner of his
 hut. "Best use this if you want to get belongings back."

 "Hey, thanks!" Ukyou said as she grasped the branch. "I've got to
 hurry if I want to catch up to Ranma and his father. Its their fault
 this happened, I'd have never been here if it wasn't for them." She
 walked out of the hut, waving to the Guide as she went. "Thanks for
 your help."

 "But.." the Guide began, sighing when he realised that the girl was
 already beyond earshot. "Why do customers never ask if there is
 permanent cure? Ah well.... other customers should be back soon. Maybe
 they have sense to ask.  If not, " the Guide shrugged his shoulders, "
 then it not my place to tell them." ) ++++++++++++++++++++++

"I fished my clothes, backpack and spatula out of the spring." Ukyou
continued. After my clothes dried, I put them on and returned to the
hut so I could return the branch, but the Guide was gone. It was after
two more months of searching I heard that Ranma was heading to Japan,
so I followed him here."

"That was you at the springs?" Ryouga asked. "I thought you were a
guy!"

"I thought you were a girl." Ukyou replied, grinning. "So if you were
the girl who tried to save me than that means that the other girl
was....."

At that moment, Ranma-chan walked into the bathroom, a towel draped
over her shoulder. She had given up on her search for Ukyou's cursed
form after pouring hot water over two dogs and a bird, and running away
screaming from a cat. She had her head down, thinking about what Ukyou
could turn into as she entered the bath area.

Hearing a female gasp, she groaned to herself. [Oh no, not again] she
thought.  [Akane's going to kill me. What is she doing in here now?]
Steeling herself, Ranma-chan raised her head. She took in the scene.
Ryouga, dressed only in a towel, was sitting next to a woman with free
flowing dark brown hair who was only dressed in a bathrobe. Blushing,
Ranma-chan backed out of the room, stuttering "E...excuse me. I... I
had no idea." As soon as she was clear of the sliding door, she shut it
before her. [Ryouga... and a woman... in a bathroom together? I'd of
never thought that would happen.]

"What's wrong Ranma?" Akane asked as she walked up behind Ranma-chan.

"Noth..Nothing." Ranma-chan replied. "Ryouga was just in the bathroom
and I decided to leave him in his privacy."

"Oh." Akane replied, slightly suspicious. [He's acting a bit strange.]
she thought. [Still, he must be telling the truth. I can hear Nabiki
snoring in her room, and I just saw Kasumi go to hers, so its either
Ryouga, dad or Uncle Saotome in there.] Akane mentally shrugged. It was
late, she was tired, it just wasn't worth worrying about. "Good night,
Ranma."

"Y...yeah. Good night Akane." Ranma-chan stuttered as she walked to her
room.

Akane stared strangely at Ranma-chan before going to her room. [No
snide comments, he didn't even act as if I was there. Something is
definitely wrong with him. Not that that's new news.]

Meanwhile, back in the bathroom, Ryouga had his head in his hands. "Oh
this is just perfect." He muttered to himself. "He's never going to let
me live this one down."

"Him." Ukyou replied, her voice level. "It was Ranma who almost knocked
me into the springs, wasn't it?"

Ryouga nodded. "But he didn't even see you. I told him about you after
we both calmed down, and he said he didn't remember knocking into you.
Besides, in the end, he didn't knock you in, did he? If anything's to
blame, its the cliff for crumbling."

"How can you defend him? He left me. He stole my betrothal gift and he
LEFT ME BEHIND! If it wasn't for him I wouldn't even have been in
China. And if it wasn't for you, it _would_ have been him responsible
for my curse. For ten years my life has been miserable because of him,
and now, thanks to him, my life is an even greater hell. Thanks to him
I gave up my femininity, my humanity. Since that dark day when he left
me I swore that I would never love another man again."

Ryouga raised his head from his hands and looked at Ukyou with a
puzzled expression on his face. "Why would you go and do a thing like
that? A cute girl like you would have no trouble finding a guy."

Ukyou stiffened up. "Cyu..." she stammered.

Ryouga continued, oblivious to her reaction. "Take it from me, I have a
pretty.... unique perspective. You're way too cute to give up on boys."

"Stop it." Ukyou said plaintively, blushing furiously.

"Hmm?" Ryouga asked, finally noticing her blushing. "What's wrong with
you?"

"Nothing." Ukyou replied, still blushing. "So... an unique perspective,
hey?  What's it really like, being able to turn into a girl and back?"

"What's it like being able to turn into a pig and back?" Ryouga
replied, smiling playfully.

Ukyou sighed and stared at a wall. "Its horrible. Maybe it wouldn't
have been too bad if I turned into something that isn't eaten all over
the world, but I do. I've gone through hell because of my curse. I've
been chased by people with cleavers, I've almost been killed for food
more times than I care to count. I can't look at a pig now without
feeling queasy. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if I'd turned into
something like a dog or a cat or..." she looked at Ryouga "...a man.
Compared to some of the curses out there, I'd have killed to turn into
the opposite gender."

It was Ryouga's turn to sigh. "Be careful what you wish for. My life
has become so complicated because of my curse. So has Ranma's for that
matter, but I think even he would agree that I'm the one who is having
more trouble with it."

"I think you're complaining to the wrong person. What's happened to you
that's so bad?"

"I think my biggest problem is because of a mistake Nabiki made on the
first day I went to school. I got splashed just as we arrived. Nabiki
said she'd fix it, but after she came back she said she couldn't get
hot water in time so she registered me as a girl."

Ukyou snickered.

"What? You think its funny?" Ryouga asked, not really too angry. He was
starting to like this girl and he didn't want to lose his temper.

"Oh, go on. I'll tell you why its funny after you finish."

"Alright. So anyway, I thought 'this sucks, but its only for one day. I
can pretend to be a girl for one day.' Turns out that it wouldn't be
for one day.  I turn up early with Nabiki the ..uh.. next day, this
time with a flask full of hot water, just in case. Nabiki goes off to
fix what she had created, but after a while she comes back and tells me
she can't fix it. I think its the closest I have ever seen her to being
embarrassed. Apparently I couldn't get my records changed back to
saying I was a male for a fair while. I couldn't re-register since I
now had no records in my male name. I really had only two choices.
Either I didn't go to school , or I pretend to be a girl."

Ukyou was looking at Ryouga again. "Sounds to me like both options
didn't appeal to you."

"You've got that right."

"So why didn't you just skip a semester if being a girl was so bad?"

"Honestly? I've never really told anyone this, not even Ranma, but
until I met him I was just so incredibly lonely. He was the first true
friend I ever had. When I got here, suddenly I felt like I was part of
a family. To a loner like me, it was bliss. I knew that if I didn't go
to school, Mr Tendo and Mr Saotome might feel that I didn't deserve to
stay. I couldn't face the emptiness that leaving would give me. I hate
having to pretend to be a girl at school everyday. I live in constant
fear of hot water, if my curse was revealed now I'd lose all the
friends I've made at school. They'd never trust me again. You wouldn't
believe how many times I've pretended to get lost when home economics
is on. Hah! Me, pretending to be lost ! What a cosmic joke. I don't
even want to talk about what I have to go through to avoid changing
with the other girls before and after sport."

Ukyou nodded in understanding. "I know how you feel, perhaps better
than you can ever realise. I mentioned it before, but since Ranma left
me behind ten years ago, I've dressed like a boy. I was pretty good at
it. I don't think that I ever met anyone who thought I was a girl. The
last school I went to was an all boys school. I went through pretty
much the same stuff you say you are going through. Lying to everyone I
knew, always fearing that someone would find out about my true gender.
Never getting too close to anyone, both because I'd been scarred
before, and because they might find out I was a girl."

"We two are a pitiful lot." Ryouga said. "We both pretend to be
something we are not, always afraid that others might find out the
truth."

"Hmm... the truth. Hey, Ryouga, could you do me a favour?"

"I guess, yeah. What do you want me to do?"

"Ranma acts like he doesn't know what he did to me. I don't think I can
face him without getting angry. Could you find out why he left me
behind ten years ago? I really need to know."

"Sure, I guess I can do that." Ryouga stood. "You want to come too?"

"But I just said that I couldn't face him without getting angry. That's
why I asked you to find out. I'd never be able to politely ask him to
explain.  Besides, I don't know how he feels about me. He left me
behind ten years ago.  He acts like we're still friends when I got
here, but I have attacked him a couple of times. He might not sit down
in the same room with me."

"Maybe....", Ryouga drawled, looking towards the cold water tap on the
shower, "...but if you were a pig you should be able to stop yourself
from attacking, and Ranma wouldn't know its you, so you could hear for
yourself what he thinks."

Ukyou stared at the shower for a minute before replying. "Ok. But
you've gotta promise to change me back afterwards. And no peeping at me
when I do!"

"I promise!" Ryouga said. He blushed, twiddled his thumbs, and added
"Besides, I couldn't handle the blood loss if I did peek."

Ukyou laughed as she stood and walked over to the shower head. A spray
of water later, and a black piglet wriggled out from the bathrobe.
Ukyou-piglet squealed its readiness.

"Um....could you turn around for a minute, I have to...uh... get
dressed." Ryouga told the piglet, blushing again.

Ukyou-piglet rolled her eyes and turned to face the wall.

***********************************************

Ranma-chan lay wide awake on her futon. [I can't believe Ryouga was in
the same room as a girl, in that state of dress. Never in a million
years would I have believed that.] She raised her head as she heard the
door open.

"Ranma?" Ryouga whispered.

"Yeah?" Ranma-chan answered.

"I've gotta talk to you. Come with me."

"Alright." Ranma-chan said, getting up and following (leading) Ryouga
downstairs. When they reached the dining room, Ryouga sat down next to
the table. Ranma-chan sat down opposite. For the first time, she
noticed that Ryouga was carrying something. It appeared to be a small
black piglet. It was staring at her with an angry expression on its
face.

"Where did you get that?" she asked, pointing at the piglet.

"I.... got her on my travels." Ryouga replied. "I met someone today.
Ukyou."

"Did he attack you too?" Ranma-chan asked. "I can't understand what has
gotten into him. He used to be a great guy."

[Guy?] Ryouga thought to himself. [Ukyou said something about dressing
up as a guy.] "Yes.... _he_ asked me to ask you some things."

"Why didn't he just ask me himself?" Ranma-chan asked, confused. "He
was just here before."

"He said he couldn't face you without getting angry. Look, if you
answer these questions, maybe we can sort this mess out."

"Ok, ok. Shoot."

Ryouga looked down at the piglet, then returned his gaze to Ranma-chan.
"When you first knew Ukyou, did you ever think... he.... was a girl?"

"What?" Ranma-chan asked. "What sort of a question is that? Of course I
didn't think he was a girl. He was a guy, same as me."

The piglet drooped a little as it heard this. Ryouga asked the next
question.  "Did your father ever tell you of any.... arrangements
between your family and Ukyou's?"

Ranma puzzled over this question as well. [What's with these
questions?] he thought. "Pop never said anything about any
arrangements. Me and Ukyou were friends. What sort of arrangements
could there be?"

Ryouga answered that question after some hesitation. "I think that
Ukyou was supposed to go with you. He said something about a yatai
being stolen by you and your pop."

"What? Why would we steal their yatai?" Ranma-chan asked. She stopped,
thought for a moment, then said "Now that you mention it, I do remember
riding off on a yatai, with Ukyou yelling something to me as we left. I
think I thought he was yelling goodbye. I wonder why pop took the
yatai."

Ryouga looked at Ukyou-piglet again. She was looking positively
miserable now.  "One last question. Do you know why Ukyou's angry at
you."

Ranma-chan sighed. "No, I don't. For some reason, he followed me to
China. I think he got cursed at Jusenkyo, same as us. I'm pretty sure
he blames me for that, but I don't know why. What did he tell you? Did
he give you any hint as to why he's attacking me?"

Ryouga sighed. "He has his reasons. I cannot reveal them."

Ranma-chan stood. "I'm tired, I've gotta get some sleep." She started
walking towards the stairs, but stopped suddenly. "Damn, I almost
forgot. Who was that girl you were with in the bathroom?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Ryouga replied calmly.

"Oh, sure, sure. I'll get the truth out of you one day." Ranma-chan
said as she left for her room. [Damn it.] she thought. [I just can't
shake the feeling that I've seen that girl from the bathroom somewhere
before. But where?]

Ukyou-piglet sighed. Ryouga looked over at an umbrella, a giant
spatula, and some clothes that were piled up in the corner of the room.
"Are those yours?" Ryouga asked Ukyou-P, pointing at the stuff. The
piglet nodded, so Ryouga picked them up and headed for the bathroom (or
the kitchen, whichever he found first.)

Half an hour later, Ukyou and Ryouga were back in the bathroom. Ukyou
was human again, dressed as a boy. "That's incredible." Ryouga said as
he saw her boy disguise.

"Years of practice." Ukyou said despondently.

Ryouga awkwardly put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you going to be all
right?"

Ukyou sighed. "I don't know. He never knew I was a girl. I can't
believe it.  How blind can you get?"

"Did you ever tell him?"

"I didn't think I had to! I thought he could tell! Unless he was lying,
he didn't know we were engaged, didn't know that I was supposed to come
with him."

"I'm sorry Ukyou. He wasn't lying. I could tell."

Ukyou sighed again.

"You want to talk about it?" Ryouga asked. "I know what its like to be
depressed. Sometimes it pays to talk to someone."

"Maybe you're right." Ukyou answered, and began to talk, about her
life, her dreams. Ryouga told her about himself as well, just to fill
the awkward gaps in the conversation. Time passed until finally, Ukyou
felt better enough to leave.

As they reached the front door (Ukyou led this time, she was beginning
to get an idea that Ryouga was not the best with directions.), Ukyou
turned to Ryouga and said "Thank you, for being so understanding."

Ryouga blushed, saying "I've been where you are. Except for the revenge
bit.  Nobody deserves to face this sort of stuff alone."

"Oh well, goodbye. See you at school!" Ukyou said as she left the
residence, waving to Ryouga.

"Yes." Ryouga said to himself as he waved back. "I'm looking forward to
it."

***********************************************

"Akane, you've cut your hair!" Ryouga exclaimed as he sat down opposite
Akane and Ranma at breakfast. A deathly silence covered the room. It
was the sort of silence you got after lines like 'I need a volunteer
for a suicide mission.', 'Oh wait, silly me, I meant cut the red
wire!', 'Trust me, I know what I'm doing.', 'Well that wasn't meant to
happen!' and 'How could it possibly hurt?'.

"So what did you bring us from your latest trip?" Nabiki asked into the
silence. It was too early in the morning, she didn't want to hear an
argument between Akane and Ranma right now.

"Well, I got these." Ryouga said and started pulling out tacky
souvenirs from around the globe.

***********************************************

"Ryoko! Come into my arms, my beloved!" Kunou shouted ecstatically as
he ran towards Ryouga-chan.

Ryouga-chan groaned to herself. [What does it take to stop this guy?]
she thought to herself. [I keep putting him in traction, but he still
doesn't get the idea. There has got to be a way.]

Unfortunately distracted by her thoughts, her guard was down enough for
Kunou to hug her. The familiar spark of anger she felt whenever Kunou
tried something along these lines began to glow within her. Before she
could increase Kunou's medical premiums again, a familiar combat
spatula pried the two apart.

"What do you think you're doing?" Ukyou (dressed as a boy) asked Kunou
angrily. "Harassing poor Ryoug.."

"Ko! Ryoko!" Ryouga-chan interjected desperately.

Ukyou looked at Ryouga-chan for a second before realising that if he
wanted to keep his two genders separate, he might use a different name
in this form.  "Yes, harassing poor Ryoko here. What sort of a weirdo
are you?"

"How dare you address the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, Kunou
Tatewaki, like this? I do not recognise you, arrogant lout, so you must
be new around here.  Certainly your oafish actions towards me prove
that. What concern of it is yours how I treat the fierce yet fawnlike
Ryoko?" Kunou raised his boken so that its point was towards Ukyou, in
an unspoken challenge.

'Fawnlike' Ukyou mouthed incredulously as she looked at Ryouga-chan,
hoping to get an explanation out of her. Ryouga-chan wasn't looking at
Ukyou, however.  She had her hand over her forehead and eyes, almost as
if she had a gigantic headache.

A crowd was slowly gathering around this confrontation, with Nabiki,
Ranma and Akane being amongst them. Several voices could be heard
murmuring in the crowd: 'Hey, what's going on?' 'Looks like Kunou is
courting death again.' 'Oh, you mean he's trying to date Ryoko again?'
'Yeah.' 'You hid the hamster where!?!' 'Say, isn't that the new guy,
whatshisname?' 'I think his name's Ukyou.' 'He sure is cute.'

Meanwhile, Ukyou was thinking about what to say to this idiot in the
Kendo outfit. He obviously (or at least hopefully) didn't know about
Ryouga's curse.  Ukyou had had a long talk with Ryouga the night
before. She had a good idea of what he would and wouldn't do, and
encouraging this fool was something Ryouga wouldn't do. This Kunou guy
obviously thought he had some sort of hold over Ryouga. His proprietary
attitude was really annoying Ukyou. Add to that the fact that he had
insulted her twice already, and Ukyou was not happy. She wasn't like
Ryouga in that anger drove her, but her long term anger at rejection by
Ranma ten years ago, her rather unfortunate curse, and the fact that
she was depressed from finding out last night that her long years
driven by vengeance had been for nothing all accumulated into making
Ukyou _not happy_.

"I don't like your attitude, pretty boy." she snarled as she readied
her combat spatula. "Ryo...ko is not yours. Back off now."

Nabiki's eyes lit up. It was time for a fight, and that meant it was
time for.... "Place your bets here ladies and gentlemen. 3 to 1 odds on
the new guy." A mob flocked her, people shouting out the bets they
wanted to place.  Nabiki smiled blissfully.

Ryouga-chan walked up to Ukyou and started whispering urgently in her
ear.  "What do you think you're doing?"

Ukyou, keeping her eyes on Kunou, whispered back. "I'm letting off some
steam.  This guy really raises my hackles with his attitude, and now he
pays."

"Look, as much as I hate to admit this, Kunou isn't a complete
pushover. You should let me handle this."

"I can look after myself, Ryouga. Besides, he has insulted me. That
makes it as much my fight as yours."

Ryouga-chan sighed. They had come to a sort of understanding last
night. They were friends. Ryouga had never met anyone he got on that
well with so quickly.  He didn't want her to get hurt over a nothing
like Kunou. Still, Ukyou's honour was at stake here. If there was one
thing Ryouga could respect, it was honour. Ryouga-chan turned to face
Kunou and pointed at him. "I am so sick of you, Kunou. You have never
gotten the idea that I hate you. But I am telling you now, if you hurt
Ukyou, I _will_ kill you." She turned her back on him and stalked over
to where Ranma and Akane were standing nearby.

"Man, you're acting friendly with a guy you only met last night." Ranma
observed.

"Shut up." Ryouga-chan replied as she stared at Ukyou.

Kunou, meantime, was getting over his fury at this boy Ukyou's
impertinence, not to mention his private conversation with Ryoko, which
had looked very intimate. The last straw was Ryoko's declaration to
him. He stared angrily at Ukyou. "So I see that Saotome is not the only
sorcerer around here. You have obviously ensorcelled fair Ryoko. You
are too much of a coward to even give me a name!"

"My name is Kuonji Ukyou, and you are a sexist pi... worm." Ukyou
replied as she readied four throwing spatulas in her right hand.

"No-one speaks to Kunou Tatewaki like that!" Kunou screamed, charging
towards Ukyou, his boken held at the ready. Ukyou threw her four small
spatulas before readying her combat spatula in a two handed grip.
Kunou, showing that he was in fact a skilled opponent, swatted the four
spatulas out of his way as he continued to run for his opponent. With
the clash of wood on metal, boken was blocked by spatula. In a flurry
of blows almost too fast to be seen, both fighters tested each other.
Ukyou had an advantage in reach, Kunou had a slight advantage in speed.
Both were very skilled in their chosen weapons.

It was Ukyou who breached Kunou's defences first. The razor sharp edge
of her spatula sliced along Kunou's chest, slicing his clothes and
causing a long wound, little deeper than a scratch. As blood welled up
in his wound, Kunou's eyes flashed with rage as, with a cry of "strike!
strike! strike! strike!" he landed a series of incredibly quick blows.
Ukyou desperately tried to block them. Eventually, Kunou's raging
attack broke through, and he landed a hard blow on her left shoulder.
Ukyou let out a strangled cry as she felt her left arm go numb. She
stumbled back from Kunou to give herself some room, holding her battle
spatula in her right hand only. Using one hand would be a clumsy way to
fight, the spatula was really a two-handed weapon.

Kunou smiled. Victory was near. As it should be for a master of the
blade such as himself. This boy had shown some skill in lasting this
long, but now was the time to finish this fight. He raised his boken
into an attack position.

Ukyou grimly held her spatula in preparation. [If he thinks this is
over, he's got another thing coming.] she thought.

Kunou measured the distance between himself and Ukyou. If he didn't
finish this now he'd be late for class, clearly an unwanted occurrence.
Ukyou had backed away a fair distance when 'he' retreated. It would
take a few seconds to cover the distance. He flowed into a run as he
let loose a shout.

Ukyou's eyes narrowed. She set her spatula against the ground and
reached into her shirt. She pulled out a bag and threw it at the ground
in front of her, ripping it as she let go. "Flour bomb!" she yelled as
she grabbed her spatula again and sidestepped to the left.

Kunou was going too fast to avoid the flour cloud. He started swinging
his boken as he entered the cloud so that he would have a chance of
hitting Ukyou wherever 'he' was. "Ha!" he cried. "Such a cowardly trick
will not stop.."

He was cut short as a giant spatula rushed eerily out of the murky
cloud, hitting Kunou smack in the face. With a crash Kunou fell to the
ground, unconscious.

The flour cloud rapidly dissipated, revealing Ukyou standing over a
defeated Kunou. Ukyou nudged Kunou with her foot, muttering "Baka.
Teach you to underestimate an opponent." She looked at her left
shoulder, wincing at the pain it was giving her. The cloth of her shirt
was cut there, and blood was welling up from the wound. She stared down
at Kunou again. "All that from a wooden weapon." she muttered to
herself.

Ryouga-chan, Ranma and Akane walked over to her as the crowd dispersed.
"Ya sure showed him Ucchan." Ranma said.

Ukyou winced again, although this time it wasn't from her physical
pain. She sighed. "Look, Ranma, I want to start over with you again.
Too many things have happened to me for me to go back to our old
friendship, but maybe its time to start a new one. Call me Ukyou."

Ranma smiled. He still didn't know why Ukyou had followed him to China,
getting his curse, but Ukyou was the oldest friend he had. It had hurt
him to have Ukyou attacking him. Even if things couldn't go back to the
way they were once, at least they could be friends. "Sure thing Ukyou.
You'd better get that shoulder looked at."

Ryouga-chan looked at Ukyou with some concern. "You ok?" he asked.

Ukyou turned to Ryouga-chan. "Takes more than that to get me." she
said, grinning. "He was pretty good."

Akane nodded. "He tends to try a lot harder against guys than girls."

Ryouga-chan took several bandannas off her head and offered them to
Ukyou.  "Here." she said. "You can use these until we get to the
nurse's station."

Ukyou took the bandannas and used them to staunch her wound.

"I guess we'd better get Ukyou looked at and then get to class." Akane
said.

As they started to head off, a voice from behind them stopped them.
"Wait...  this is not... over."

The group turned their heads to see that Kunou had recovered. "I think
your...  treatment of him is beginning to give him a resistance,
Ryouga." Ranma noted.

Ryouga-chan walked to Kunou, a grim look on her face, not answering
Ranma. "Ah my fierce Ryoko, have you come to date with me at last?"

Ryouga-chan hammer fisted Kunou in the stomach. With a whoosh of air,
Kunou collapsed onto his hands and knees. "Sick of you." Ryouga-chan
said angrily.  "Maybe you remember my promise about what would happen
if you hurt Ukyou?"

Kunou croaked in response. He had still to recover his breath. He
didn't get a chance to say anything more meaningful as Ryouga-chan's
fist crashed into his face, knocking him into a far more longer lasting
unconsciousness.

"Maybe one day he'll get the idea." Ryouga-chan muttered to herself.

"Geez, don't you think you were a little bit harsh?" Ukyou asked as
Ryouga-chan returned to her side.

"Put up with Kunou for a few days and see if you're any different."
Ryouga-chan countered.

"Come on," Ukyou said as she put a hand around Ryouga-chan's shoulder.
"You can show me the way to the nurse's office."

Ryouga-chan blushed at having a girl wrapping her arm around 'him'.
"O...ok.  Its this way, I think." With that she headed off in a
direction almost guaranteed to be wrong.

Ranma and Akane, meantime, were frozen in shock. A guy had just put an
arm around Ryouga, and all he had done was blush? Considering the way
Ryouga overreacted every time a guy approached his female form, this
was at least slightly strange.

"You don't think...." Ranma began as he looked at Akane, who was
looking back.

Akane considered for a moment before saying "Ryouga? Fall for a guy?
You have got to be kidding."

"Yeah, you're right." Ranma said. He looked at the receding figures of
Ukyou and Ryouga-chan. Considering the current direction they were
travelling in, they had more chance of finding Atlantis than the
nurse's office. Ukyou mustn't be paying attention to where they were
going. "We'd better get to them before Ryouga loses them permanently."

***********************************************

The man from Nerima Real Estate extolled the virtues of the shop he was
trying to lease. The prospective occupant was a young man, probably
about nineteen years old. He had really short black hair over a face
with reddish-brown eyes.  He was relatively tall, about six feet, and
was dressed in black trousers, and a light grey Chinese shirt that
opened at the left side of the front. Over the shirt he wore a belt and
bandolier combination which was covered in small leather pouches, all
closed off with push buttons. Around his neck hung, like necklaces, a
set of goggles like those used in lab work, and a small breathing mask,
such as one used in woodwork, similar to the masks used when one had a
cold.

The young man looked out of the store's front window. He could see an
Okonomiyaki store opposite. [Ucchans.] he thought to himself.
[Interesting name.]

The real estate man finally wound down his long speech about the
financial advantages of setting up a store here, about what the terms
of the lease would be, and other trivial information. "So Mr...
Potion...." he shook his head at the name, "... have you reached a
decision?"

The young man turned to the agent and smiled. He replied, with a
noticeable Chinese accent, "I'll take it. And please, call me Shin."

***********************************************

School was over for the day. Ukyou led Ryouga-chan to her okonomiyaki
restaurant.

"Are you sure your shoulder's alright?" Ryouga-chan asked as Ukyou
stopped her from walking off in the wrong direction.

"Would you stop asking me about that? I'm fine. Now come on."

"Oh. Ok." Ryouga-chan said. "Your restaurant has got hot water hasn't
it?"

"Of course it does. You know, I can't understand you. You go around as
a girl all day, but as soon as you're out you start looking for hot
water like your life depended on it."

"I go as a girl to keep my secret. That doesn't mean I enjoy it. Once
I'm out of sight of school people I like to get back into my real
body."

"Oh. Well, here we are. What do you think?" Ukyou asked as she gestured
to her store.

"Oh..." Ryouga-chan paused, trying to think of something appropriate to
say.  "... it's nice." Ryouga-chan said.

Ukyou looked over at the store opposite hers. Shin was standing in
front of it, directing some men carrying in crates. "Hmm, it looks like
I'm not the only one who's moving in. I should go and greet the owner,
be neighbourly. This will only take a minute."

"I guess I'll wait here." Ryouga-chan said.

Ukyou walked over to Shin. Smiling, she greeted him. "Hello there. Are
you the owner of this store?"

Shin nodded. "That's right. I am Po-Shin. Please, call me Shin. You
are?"

"My name is Kuonji Ukyou. I run that okonomiyaki store over there. I
guess we'll be neighbours."

"Yes I..." Shin hissed as Ryouga-chan walked up to them.

"Hello." Ryouga-chan said, trying to be pleasant.

Ukyou looked over at Ryouga-chan. "Ah... Shin, right? This is Ryoko, a
friend of mine."

Shin was sweating profusely. He was looking at Ryouga-chan with a
mixture of fear and puzzlement on his face. "N... nice to m... meet
you." he stammered, not sounding as if he meant it.

"Likewise." Ryouga-chan answered. [What the hell is wrong with this
guy?] she thought to herself.

Shin gave a nervous laugh. "W... well, better be going. Things to take
care of." With that he sprinted into his store.

Ukyou and Ryouga-chan looked at each other in puzzlement. "What the
hell was his problem?" Ryouga-chan asked.

"I have no idea." Ukyou answered. "Come on, lets go."

***********************************************

Shin leaned against the counter of his store, panting hard, clutching
at his heart. [What the hell is wrong with me?] he thought as he felt
himself calm down. [I've never felt such fear, and I don't even know
why I felt it. It was just some girl, what could be so terrifying about
that?]

Shin steeled himself. [I refuse to succumb to such fear. I shall face
this terror and defeat it.] He opened his shirt and looked at a tattoo
that was placed right over his heart. It was the Chinese symbol for
fire. [I wonder if she's..... no. Jusenkyo's curse is just a myth. And
what would someone cursed at the springs be doing here?]

With a determined look on his face, Shin rebuttoned his shirt and
strode over to the okonomiyaki store.

***********************************************

Ryouga let out a sigh as the hot water washed away a part of himself he
would rather not have. He looked around at the okonomiyaki store. It
was pretty good, actually. Ukyou obviously took pride in her business,
it showed in just how clean and neat the place was. He sat down on a
stool at the griddle and waited for Ukyou to return from whatever it
was she was doing.

"So is there any type of okonomiyaki in particular you'd like?" Ukyou
asked as she emerged from upstairs. She had let her hair out of the
ponytail she used when dressing as a boy, using a white ribbon to keep
her hair back for her cooking. She had changed into her okonomiyaki
clothes: black leggings and blue shirt. As she stepped behind the
griddle/counter, Ryouga noted something was different about her.

Her. That was it. "Ukyou! You're.... you're...." Ryouga stuttered.

"What?" Ukyou asked as she checked the heat of the griddle (she had
turned it on before going upstairs).

"You're dressed like a girl." Ryouga managed, blushing at his
forwardness.

"Oh." Ukyou said. It was true, she had taken off the binding she used
to hide her... attributes, but it wasn't as if she was wearing a dress
or anything.  "Well, I am a girl, aren't I? Society may now see me as a
man, but that doesn't mean I can't be what I am occasionally."

"No need to get defensive." Ryouga said. "You should be whatever you
want, I say."

"Thank you." Ukyou said. "Now answer my question, Ryouga. What sort of
okonomiyaki do you want?"

Ryouga looked at the menu. There was a conspicuous lack of bacon or
pork in the choices. "I think I'll try the special." he said.

"One special coming up." Ukyou said as she got to work. She hesitated
in her food preparation before saying "Ryouga...."

"Yes?"

"We're friends, aren't we?"

Ryouga looked puzzled before answering. "I'd like to think so. We get
on well, I mean, I usually get real nervous around girls, but I don't
around you. We've told each other stuff we wouldn't tell anyone besides
our friends. Yes, I'd say we are."

"As a... friend, could you give me an honest opinion on something?"

"Well, sure. What is it?"

Ukyou hesitated again before rushing "Its my engagement to Ranma. What
should I do? He doesn't even know I'm a girl. He apparently doesn't
know we were ever engaged. He's engaged to another woman as well. I've
spent ten years hating him for something it looks like his pop did. I
got a curse because I couldn't let go of my anger. Now, here I am.
You're the only friend I've got. Maybe Ranma could be a friend again, I
don't know. Any other people I was friends with I either drove away or
they left. What should I do about him?"

"Ukyou... I don't know what to say. I can't tell you what to do. I've
known Ranma for a while now. He's never hated anyone in his life, not
even his dad.  He'll gladly be your friend, but he will never accept
you as a fiance, not now, not when he's already got one. I think you
should tell him the truth about who you are, but beyond that... follow
your heart. I know it sounds corny, but that is all you can do." Ryouga
smiled, and Ukyou smiled in return.

"Excuse me." A voice at the door interjected. Ryouga and Ukyou turned
to see Shin standing at the door. "I'm looking for a couple who said
they were from here. I think their names were... Ukyou and Ryoko. Do
you know them? Your relatives perhaps?"

Ukyou looked at Ryouga. Obviously this man believed them to be
different people. "Yeeeesssss." Ukyou said. "They're not here right
now. Can we help you?"

"I just wanted to apologise to the girl. I don't know what came over
me. Do you know where she is? I really need to ask her a question."

"They'll be...uh... back later." Ryouga answered. "You can give us your
question if you like, and we'll.... pass it on."

For some reason, Shin was looking at Ryouga intently. [I know him.] he
thought. Shin fidgeted his fingers before continuing "This is going to
sound silly, but could you ask her if she has ever visited Jusenkyo?"

Ukyou and Ryouga were shocked. "How did you know... she.... went to
Jusenkyo?" Ryouga asked incredulously.

"Then she did? Damn, the legends must be true. Jusenkyo does work.
Damn, damn, damn." Shin muttered to himself. He bowed to the two.
"Thank you for your time." He stared at Ryouga again before saying,
"Excuse me sir, what is your name? "

"Its Ryouga." Ryouga answered, confused at the question.

"Ryouga." Shin repeated to himself. "Thank you again." he said as he
turned and left.

"How did he know?" Ukyou asked. "And if he could tell, why couldn't he
tell when he saw you as a male, or me for that matter?"

"I don't know, but there's more to that man than meets the eye." Ryouga
said.

***********************************************

It was night, Shin was unpacking various wrapped items from some crates
in his store. As he worked, he talked to himself.

"Damn it, I thought that Jusenkyo's curse was a myth. I wouldn't have
taken that training if I did. It sounded so simple at the time - in
return for having a weakness to Jusenkyo, you get a resistance to fire.
Easy trade! I thought. I work with fire all the time, but I never need
worry about Jusenkyo.  Now some girl comes out of nowhere with a
Jusenkyo curse. I don't know what she even is in her true form, but she
is dangerous to me."

He stopped talking for a few minutes before starting up again. "And
then there's that Ryouga guy. I know him. From where? Where, where,
where.....wait.  Now I remember."

He stood and clenched his fist, raising it to the sky. "So you thought
you could run out on me, Ryouga. Thought I'd forget what you did to me.
Well, the gods of luck have pointed the way to my vengeance. I have
found you at last, after having given up hope of ever doing so. And
now, you shall pay."

He looked around at his store before adding "Well, after I get my
business up and running, you shall pay. You have won a reprieve!"

***********************************************

It was closing time at Ucchans okonomiyaki-ya. It had been a pretty
quiet day.  As it was more of a trial run than a true first day of
opening, Ukyou hadn't advertised. Ryouga had waited around for Ukyou to
close, because, as she insisted, 'You'd never be able to find your way
home without someone to help you.'

"You didn't have to do this, you know." Ryouga told Ukyou as she helped
him home. "I can find my way just fine by myself."

"Uh-huh. That's why we got to the bathroom from the dining room via the
Shinjuku Train Station last night." Ukyou noted dryly. "I can't see
your problem with admitting this. It's kinda cute for a guy to have a
weakness."

"It's not a weakness!" Ryouga shouted. He quickly calmed himself. "It's
not a weakness. It's just something that.... happens."

"Hey, I turn into a small edible animal when I get splashed with cold
water. I know a weakness when I see one." Ukyou said.

"What do you do if you get changed to your cursed form?" Ryouga asked
curiously.

"Depends on where I am." Ukyou answered. "If I'm home, I've set up the
hot water tap to be easily turned, even by a pig. I put a set of steps
next to the sink so that I can make it there, and I reenforced the sink
so that it doesn't collapse under my weight. That's the easy way. If
I'm not home, I either do my best to get home, hoping that my ribbon,
which stays on me when I change, I really don't know why, will make
people leave me alone 'cause they think I'm a pet. If someone sees me
as a potential source of cheap food, I run into the nearest rest room I
can find and change there. _Then_ I have to try and find some clothes.
It can get to be a real headache."

Ukyou sighed, both at her curse, and at Ryouga, who was heading in the
wrong direction again. "This way." she said as she pulled Ryouga on
course again.  "That's why I got so angry when I was fighting Ranma a
couple of days ago and he whined about his curse. Here I was, having
given up being a girl to try and get back my life, never feeling safe
to just _be_ a girl again, and cursed with a form that has almost got
me killed and cooked, and he was complaining because he could grow a
set of breasts! It was unbelievable! I have never been so angry as I
was after he made that little speech."

"B...but am I any different?" Ryouga asked, both concerned and confused
at the way Ukyou could be so angry at Ranma's curse, and not at
Ryouga's. "I mean, I turn into a girl too. And I complained about it to
you last night. Why don't you hate me for it?"

"Well, yeah. You did complain a bit. But your problem with your female
side sort of mirrors what I go through, hiding my own gender. Plus, I'd
already realised that you had tried to save me from getting cursed.
And....." she hesitated, blushing slightly.

"Yes, and?" Ryouga prompted.

[And you called me cute. No-one has ever done that, especially after I
started dressing as a guy. And you were nice to me when I was a piglet.
And you were understanding, you listened to my problems. And I think I
really like you.] she thought. "Nothing." she said. Seeing that Ryouga
was going the wrong way again, she sighed and wrapped her left arm
through his right. "Come on. This way, you don't go wandering off."

Ryouga flushed. Why was she being so nice to him? For starters, he had
seen her naked. Akane had freaked when he saw her. Then, he was friends
with Ranma.  She might have made up with Ranma today, but she obviously
still had an underlying feeling of resentment towards him. Plus, he had
thoughtlessly put his problems on her last night, even complaining
about his girl side. It was now apparent that his problems paled
compared to Ukyou's curse. It had been selfish of him not to realise
that complaining about being a girl to a girl who was cursed as a pig
(and who had sort of renounced her femininity, though he hadn't known
the full story on that at the time) would be unfair and cruel.  She was
just being so nice to him. Ryouga smiled.

Ukyou noticed his smile. "What is it?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing. This is just.... nice. My life has been so crazy lately. It's
nice just to walk along in peace." Ryouga replied.

Ukyou smiled too. "Yes. This is nice." she said. She clasped his hand,
the one that was close to hers in their locked arms.

***********************************************

Ukyou led Ryouga into the Tendo residence, still holding his hand.

Ryouga looked in the dining room. There, Genma, in panda form, was
reading a paper. No-one else was about. If he had cared to find out,
Ryouga would have found out that Soun was praying at the family shrine,
Nabiki was out on a...  business dinner (she listened to what someone
wanted her to do for her while that person bought her dinner. This
time, like most, it was Kunou, who was trying to get a date with his
'pig-tailed goddess', i.e. Ranma-chan). Speaking of Ranma, he was in
his room, sick from one of his first encounters with Akane's food.
Akane was fuming in her room at Ranma's reaction to her cooking (How
dare he! And after I put in a half litre of cooking wine! Or was it
vinegar? Oh well, what's the difference?). Kasumi was tending to Ranma,
trying to tell him that Akane would improve with time. Genma had come
down here to get away from Ranma's piteous groans.

Ryouga looked at Ukyou. "You know..." he began. "If you want answers, I
think it's Mr Saotome you have to speak to."

"Yes, I know. But I haven't seen him around. I..." Ukyou looks
embarrassed for a couple of seconds. "...did a quick bit of
reconnaissance of this house before I... talked to Ranma for the first
time. I saw everyone but Genma... and you."

"Reconnaissance?" Ryouga asked, confused.

"I spied on the house for a couple of hours." Ukyou confessed. "Ranma
must have got lucky, he didn't get splashed while I was looking."

"Oh. Well, " Ryouga pointed to the panda, who looked up at the two
teenagers before returning to its paper, " there he is."

Ukyou looked at the panda. Comprehension dawned as she remembered the
panda at the springs. "Jusenkyo?" she asked Ryouga.

Ryouga nodded. Maybe he shouldn't have told her about it, it was the
samurai's code to keep other people's weaknesses a secret. But then
again, he thought Ukyou deserved answers, and Genma was the one to give
them. Plus, he didn't owe the man any favours, Genma had gotten
himself, Ranma, and Ryouga cursed.  In a way, he got Ukyou cursed too,
by taking the boys to Jusenkyo, making Ukyou follow. Finally, Genma
didn't seem to care who found out. The guy spent most of his time as a
panda anyway.

"That sneaky old bastard." Ukyou said, looking at the panda. "Come on."
she said, dragging Ryouga to the kitchen.

"Don't you want to talk to him?" Ryouga asked as Ukyou looked around in
the kitchen.

"Can he speak in that form?" Ukyou asked, already knowing from personal
experience the answer.

"Well, no." Ryouga admitted. "Not as such. He writes signs though."

Ukyou filled a kettle with water and placed it on the stove. As she
waited for it to boil, she thought about talking to Genma in panda
form. "Nah. It'd take too long to get an answer out of him that way. As
it is, I'll probably have to use applied violence to get anything out
of him."

Ryouga nodded, both in understanding and in agreement. She was right,
it would take physical threats to get Mr Saotome to talk. After all,
Genma hadn't told Ranma that he was engaged until they were a couple of
blocks from the Tendo Dojo. The guy seemed to like keeping important
information to himself. After hearing Ukyou's story of how she also got
engaged to Ranma, it made him wonder if Genma had engaged Ranma to
anyone else. Knowing Genma, they'd get the answer to that when the
prospective bride turned up at the Dojo.

Ukyou grabbed the kettle in one hand, Ryouga in the other. "Come on."
she said as she rushed out to the panda. She was excited. Maybe now she
could find out why Genma had left her behind.

Panda looked up at the two teenagers standing over him. He didn't
recognise the girl with Ryouga. [Maybe Ryouga's got a girlfriend.] he
thought to himself. [Naaahhhhh.]

Ukyou poured the hot water over the panda, turning him back into
Genma.

"Yeeeeoouch! That was HOT !!!" Genma screamed.

Ukyou smiled. Damn right it was. She had turned the stove up as high as
it would go and waited a couple of minutes longer than she really had
to for it to boil. She had certainly hoped that it was hot. Genma would
be lucky if that was the most pain she visited on him.

"You have some explaining to do, Genma." Ryouga said darkly, his arms
crossed.

Genma started to sweat slightly. Ryouga never called him Genma,
especially in that tone. He was really angry about something, and the
girl with him looked just as ready to kill. If not more so. "Ah... I
have no idea what you mean." he managed.

"Perhaps you remember me?" Ukyou asked, as darkly as Ryouga. "Kuonji
Ukyou?  The one you left behind?"

Genma paled. "F...forgive me! We were poor! We couldn't afford to keep
you!"

"Not good enough." Ukyou said. "Even at my age back then I was a
skilled chef.  I could have kept us all in money with that yatai. Plus,
if you didn't want to take me, why did you steal the yatai?"

"Better make it believable." Ryouga added, scowling.

Genma was sweating a lot more now. He was a skilled martial artist, but
at heart he really was a coward. He had heard Ranma talk about a
skilled martial artist called Ukyou, but had not made the connection
because Ranma had said that Ukyou was a boy. So, he was faced with two
skilled and angry martial artists. One he could probably beat if it
came to a fight. Two.... he wouldn't like to bet on. "I...I... it was
Ranma's choice! When your father asked to engage you and Ranma, I gave
the choice to Ranma. I asked him which he preferred, okonomiyaki or
you, and he said okonomiyaki. So I respected my son's decision, and
left you."

"You still took the yatai though!" Ukyou snarled.

"But your father had given that to me." Genma protested.

"He gave it to you as an engagement gift! He gave it on the condition
that Ranma and I get engaged!" Ukyou shouted. She was really starting
to get worked up.

"Well, I guess the engagement is still valid..." Genma started.

Ukyou turned from Genma in disgust. "Do you think it's true, that it
was Ranma that chose to left me behind?" she asked Ryouga.

Ryouga considered this. "I doubt it. But then again, Ranma can be
pretty inconsiderate. He _might_ have chosen okonomiyaki over you.
Especially if he thought you were a guy at the time. There's only one
way to find out."

"Ask Ranma." Ukyou said.

"Good idea, you go do that." Genma said.

"You're coming with us." Ryouga said to him, annoyed at Genma's
actions.

***********************************************

Ranma lay on his futon, clutching at his stomach. How could _anyone_
cook that bad? It just wasn't possible. Ranma had cooked a decent meal
the first time he ever tried. Sure, it hadn't been great, but it had
been edible. Yet Akane, with the help of Kasumi, a great cook, couldn't
make something a starving dog would eat. And then she got angry when he
tried to point this out to her! It wasn't his fault she made such a
horrible.... horrible..... well, Akane called it a meal. Ranma had
called it some things that couldn't be repeated in polite
conversation.

So, being horribly sick, Ranma was not in the best frame of mind to see
his father forced into the room by Ukyou, who was wielding that giant
spatula, and, unless he was wearing a good disguise, appeared to be
female. Just as big a surprise was to see Ryouga follow her/him in.
Ryouga was staring angrily at Genma for some reason. Ryouga still
hadn't forgiven Genma for the curse, but he hadn't looked at Genma like
that in months. Something, it was safe to say, was up.

"Ukyou?" he said in amazement, wincing as his stomach did flip-flops.
"So it was the spring of drowned girl you landed in, same as me." he
concluded.

Ranma saw Ryouga wince, Ukyou narrow her eyes in anger, and Genma look
confusedly at Ranma.

[Ukyou went to Jusenkyo?] Genma wondered to himself. He eyed the window
specutively, then reconsidered escape plans. Ryouga was angry at him as
well.  While Ryouga had the worst sense of direction in the world, he
did have this uncanny ability to catch up to people at the most
inconvenient time. If Genma was running away from Ryouga, then the most
inconvenient time would be any time.

Ryouga noted Ranma's condition, and forgot the mood of the room for a
moment.  "What's wrong with you?" he asked curiously. Maybe Genma or
Akane had developed some sort of special attack that had clocked Ranma.
If they had, Ryouga had to learn it. After all, he hated it when he
lost their spars, which thankfully only happened about half the time
they fought. They were pretty even in fighting skills, luckily for both
their egos. Being defeated too often wouldn't have gone done too well
with either of them.

"Akane. Can't. Cook." Ranma grated.

"Oh." Ryouga said. Well, that wouldn't do. Biological warfare wasn't an
honourable option for a true martial artist.

"Do you mind?" Ukyou asked Ryouga irritably. Ryouga had the good grace
to look embarrassed. "Now then, " she continued as she turned back to
Ranma, "I didn't fall in the girl spring. I've always been a girl."

"What?" Ranma asked, disbelievingly. Ukyou had been a girl all that
time?  Surely not....

"And the fact that you apparently didn't know is the only reason I'm
not still trying to kill you. That may change depending on how you
answer this question:  do you remember your father giving you a choice
between okonomiyaki and me?"

Ranma thought about it. "No. I don't. What do you mean, choose you?"

Genma decided to pipe up. "Ranma, my boy, I'd like to introduce you to
Kuonji Ukyou, your fiance."

"What?!?" Ranma screamed, standing up. He immediately regretted this as
his insides clenched at the reminder that the gods hadn't been merciful
and killed him after he sampled Akane's food.

Ukyou swung her spatula onto Genma's head with all her might. He was
driven to his knees as the spatula deformed to the shape of his head.
"No, I'm afraid not, old man. I let this engagement run my life for the
last ten years, and look what it's gotten me." She glanced at Ryouga
before she continued.  "Someone told me to follow my heart. Well, so I
am. I renounce my engagement to Saotome Ranma. I will not marry him."

"Fiance?" Ranma asked. He had been too busy keeping his insides inside
to have heard what Ukyou said.

Ryouga slapped his hand on Ranma's back. Ranma turned green. Well,
greener.  "No, you baka. She's not. Akane's still the only one for
you."

"Great." Ranma whispered as he started to feel his control over his
stomach weaken. Before he could _really_ embarrass himself, he ran out
the door to find somewhere to be noisily sick.

Genma felt a great load lift off of him. In more ways then one: Ukyou
ripped her spatula off of him, and he felt relief that Ukyou had
renounced the engagement. He had made it foolishly, in return for the
food the yatai had.  Soun would have killed him if he had found out
about it. "Well, I guess that's settled. All's well that ends well,
eh?" he said.

Ukyou looked back at him, an evil look in her face. "What do you mean
by that?  This isn't over. After listening to Ranma, I'm more convinced
than ever that this is all your fault."

"But you just renounced your engagement. What more do you want?" Genma
asked confused.

"The engagement might have mattered to me once. Not anymore. Its
importance was.... washed away. By some very bad water. In the end, it
was you who was responsible for me being at Jusenkyo. It was you who
crushed my dreams, my hopes of a happy life. Well, I'm ready to rebuild
that life. And I plan to start by beating its foundations out of you!"
she pulled her spatula over her head as she began to glow with ki.

Genma scrambled back from the enraged chef. "Ryouga, you are my
student! You must help your master!" he cried desperately as he began
eyeing the only viable escape route, the window.

"Of course I'll help you, sensei." Ryouga said easily. He walked in
front of the window, blocking Genma's escape. "There we go. I've
blocked off any chance of Ukyou escaping through the window. You can
thank me later."

Male cries of pain soon began to emanate from the Tendo residence.
Several passers by eyed the house in a sort of bored acceptance. They'd
been hearing male cries of pain from that house for weeks now. It had
become part of the background noise, like crickets and singing birds.

***********************************************

"Well, I have to admit, that was satisfying." Ukyou said as she and
Ryouga left the guest room the Saotomes and Ryouga slept in.

"What are you going to do now?" Ryouga asked, a little bit of worry
evident in his face and voice. "If you've got your revenge, are you
going to move back to your parents?"

"What? Leave before I've even had my first real day of trading in my
store?" Ukyou answered, a fake stern look on her face. "I'm not ready
to leave just yet."

Ryouga was about to answer when Soun walked up to them. "Ryouga, did
you hear some noises before? I thought it might have been Ranma, but
he's.... busy outside." Soun noticed Ukyou, and smiled. "Well, hello!
Who is your friend, Ryouga?"

Ryouga looked at Ukyou, then back at the closed door of the guest room.
A small smile flashed across his face. He turned to Ukyou, winked, then
turned to Soun and said seriously "Mr Tendo, I'd like you to meet
Kuonji Ukyou. Mr Saotome engaged her to Ranma when they were six years
old."

"Pleased to meet you." Ukyou said, puzzled over why Ryouga hadn't
mentioned the fact that she had just renounced that engagement.

"A pleasure to meet you too." Soun answered. "So, Ryouga, I....." he
paused for a moment as what Ryouga said sank in. "Engaged to Ranma?!?"
he screamed.

Ryouga nodded. "That's right. Don't you think Genma was great to do
that?  Ranma would be lucky to have a fiance like Ukyou." Ryouga wasn't
really thinking about what he was saying, he was just trying to get
Soun angry at Genma, not thinking how Ukyou might construe what he was
saying. Ukyou was blushing slightly.

"Excuse me for a moment." Soun said in a strangled voice. "I have to go
speak to someone." He started to walk downstairs, where he had last
seen Genma.

"Mr Tendo? If you're looking for Mr Saotome, he's in his room." Ryouga
said.

It was a sign of how preoccupied Soun was that he actually took
directions from Ryouga. He stopped walking down the stairs, and walked
to the guest room door. "Thank you, Ryouga." he said as he entered the
room, closing the door behind him.

"Ryouga, why didn't you..." Ukyou began, but stopped as Ryouga waved
her to silence.

>From the guest room, a demonic voice could be heard "Saotome!!! What's
this I hear about you engaging Ranma to another woman?!?"

Ukyou turned back to after looking at the guest room's door. Ryouga
grinned at her, and she grinned back.

"What was that?" Akane asked, sticking her head out of her room.
Ryouga's grin vanished from his face. Some people called him stupid,
but he really wasn't.  He could tell where this would go right away.

"Ranma is engaged to another woman?" Akane asked, her voice low.

"Uh, he was but..." Ryouga began, knowing in his heart that it was too
late for Ranma.

Akane wasn't listening to Ryouga anymore. She was glowing blue with ki,
and a mallet had mysteriously appeared in her hand. "RANMA.... NO....
BAKA!!!" she screamed as she vaulted down the stairs. It didn't help
Ranma's survival chances that she had, just before, heard him being
noisily ill out in the garden.

"Whoops." Ryouga said. "Forgot about her."

"Who.... _what_ was that?" Ukyou asked. "She sort of looked familiar,
but..."

"That was Akane. Ranma's fiance. She can be nice at times, if you give
her the chance." Ryouga answered.

As Ranma's protests and screams started wafting up from outside, to mix
with Genma's protests and screams from the guest room, Ukyou shook her
head. "It sounds like a happy engagement." she noted dryly.

"I get a headache just thinking about the two trying to live together
for the rest of their lives." Ryouga admitted.

"I guess I'd better get home." Ukyou said, and walked down the stairs,
with Ryouga following her.

As they reached the front door, they both winced from a particularly
nasty sound, like wood hitting flesh, that came from the garden. "You
know, " Ryouga noted to Ukyou, "I thought getting lost was a curse
until those two met. Now, I sometimes welcome it."

More screams came from outside. There was a splash, and the screams
continued in a higher, more female pitch. Ukyou shook her head. "I
think I was smarter than I thought, getting out of that engagement."

***********************************************

Daytime at the markets in Nerima. A male storekeeper looked at the
redhead and the reddish-brown haired girl before him. They were both
dressed in guys clothes, which only served to make them look more
attractive and innocent.  Both were acting so insufferably cute that he
was getting toothrot just looking at them. "Such sweet little girls!
Here, both of you have another bun for free!"

Ranma-chan smiled, put her hands in front of her face and squealed
"Ooooo!  Golly! Thank you _so_ much!"

Ryouga-chan didn't go as over the top, but she flashed a smile, showing
those fangs of hers, and said "You're too kind!"

A bit later, both were walking down a street, consuming their food.
"Yup." Ranma-chan said to Ryouga-chan. "Girls always get the free
food."

Ryouga-chan shook her head. "You're unbelievable. You actually said tee
hee to one of those storekeepers! Have you no shame?"

"You're not much better. You flashed those fangs every time you could.
You know the guys love those things. That's what they keep telling me
at school, anyway. 'Oh Ranma, you are so lucky to be friends with
Ryoko. She's a babe.  And those fangs! Oooh, they turn me on!'"
Ranma-chan shot back.

"Shut up! It's not my fault I'm cuter than you in my girl form."
Ryouga-chan said. "Those guys at school are such perverts. You know,
they think me and Ukyou are...... you know."

"So are you?" Ranma-chan teased, a grin on her face.

Ryouga-chan blushed. "No! She's not like that Ranma. She's kind, she's
sweet, and I'll kill any person who thinks she is like that. We're just
friends.  Besides, they think I'm the girl, and she's the guy,
remember?"

"Well, you can understand that they'd think that. You sit next to her
in class. She leads you to most of your classes. She's even cooked
okonomiyaki for your lunch once or twice. Look at it from an outsider's
view."

"It's none of an outsider's business." Ryouga-chan retorted. "It's
no-one's business at all. By the way, I've invited her over tonight, so
that you two can work things out between the two of you. She still
resents you a bit, and I think she needs to talk it out."

The two continued to walk down the street. Ryouga-chan looked at the
bun in her hands before piping up again. "I've got to admit, you're
right, Ranma.  This is an easy way to get cheap food. I'll have to
remember this when I next go on a trip."

***********************************************

Ranma-chan and Ryouga-chan were walking towards the Dojo. With them
were three girls from their class, each of whom where bandaged and
generally looked a bit damaged.

"The Black Rose, huh?" Ranma-chan said. They had just driven off a girl
who had been beating up the three girls after they tried to gang up on
her. The girl had attacked Ranma-chan when she grabbed the girl's
weapon, a gymnast's ribbon. The girl, Kodachi, who had called herself
the 'Black Rose', had attacked both Ranma-chan and Ryouga-chan. They
had easily evaded her attacks until she retreated.

The girls still didn't know that this was Ranma in a cursed form, but
the pig-tailed girl was known to be a friend of Akane, and she was
obviously friends with Ryoko as well, so they trusted her enough to
speak to.

"That's right." one girl said.

"Martial Arts Gymnastic, right?" Ryouga-chan asked.

"That's right! How did you know?" the second girl asked.

"I've studied the style. It's easy enough to recognise." Ryouga-chan
answered.

The three injured girls looked at each other for a moment before the
first girl said "Then perhaps you can help us. You're one of the best
martial artists in the school, and if you already know Martial Arts
Gymnastics, then could you help us keep our school pride? Kodachi has
ambushed our entire team.  In a week, there will be a Martial Arts
Gymnastic competition between Furinkan and her school. There's no-one
left to take her on, we'll have to forfeit if you don't help out!"

"Ooooh no. There's no way you are going to get me into a leotard. Not
in this lifetime." Ryouga-chan said.

The Furinkan girls looked at each other. Their best chance to win this
match, and she wouldn't compete because she was a tomboy who hated
dressing in womens clothes. It made them wonder how she learned
gymnastics in the first place. "Please?" one said in a whiny, pleading
sort of voice. They knew that Ryoko was pretty easy to manipulate if
you used a pleading enough tone.

But on this, Ryouga-chan was adamant. "I'm sorry, but I must say no.
Akane is your best bet. She is a very good martial artist, and I will
gladly help train her if she doesn't know how to use the tools."

The Furinkan girls sighed. Hopefully, Akane would be able to help them.
Ryoko was right, Akane was a very good martial artist, but they knew
that she didn't know gymnastics. If she had, she would have joined the
team long ago. Ryoko would have been better, she claimed she knew
gymnastics already. Still, you worked with what you got.

"Just don't tell Akane she wasn't your first choice." Ranma-chan said
with rare wisdom.

***********************************************

Ryouga, Ranma, and Akane were in the dojo. Akane was dressed in a gi,
and was twirling a gymnast's ribbon in one hand.

"Do you even know how to use these things?" Ranma asked.

"Just you watch." Akane said.

Ryouga did. He was hoping that Akane wouldn't need much help with this.
His hopes were quickly dashed, as Akane proceeded to drop the clubs,
tangle herself in the ribbon, and break the hoop as she tried to flip
through it.  Ryouga buried his head in his hands as Akane got angry and
destroyed the remaining intact tools.

"Leotard not looking so bad all of a sudden, eh Ryouga?" Ranma
whispered to Ryouga.

Ryouga raised his head. Ranma was right. If he didn't train Akane, then
school pride meant that he would have to compete. "I hope you've
already done your homework, Akane." he said. "This is going to take
some time."

Ryouga stood, walked over to a spare set of gymnast tools, and picked
up the ribbon. He snapped it between his two hands as he faced Akane.
"The ribbon.  Watch me carefully. You've got a lot to learn in a short
time."

***********************************************

Ranma stood next to Ryouga looking into the pond in the garden. "I
can't believe you complimented her on how far she had got. She was
hopeless."

Ryouga shook his head. "Sometimes I despair of you, Ranma. When are you
going to get it into your head that insulting Akane is suicidal? I was
encouraging her so that she wouldn't give up. I really think she can
learn it. We have got a week. It's either that, or I have to do
something I'd rather not think about." He shuddered as he thought about
being in a leotard in front of a crowd.

Ranma smiled and casually pushed Ryouga into the pond as Ryouga was
occupied thinking about possible embarrassments involved with having to
compete in the gymnastics competition.

"What the HELL did you do that for?" Ryouga-chan screamed at Ranma as
she stood in the pond.

"Just easier to try and picture you in a leotard when you're in your
girl form." Ranma said, grinning. His grin slipped when Ryouga-chan
grabbed his leg and pulled him into the pond.

"You know, you're right." Ryouga-chan said to Ranma-chan. "It is easier
to picture you in a leotard in that form."

Ranma-chan muttered as she walked off to get some hot water.

***********************************************

Akane, dressed in her pyjamas, tiredly walked into her room. Ryouga was
a pretty hard trainer. He didn't let her stop until she had been
practically exhausted. She fell limply onto her bed with a sigh. She
looked up, to see a girl with long black hair pulled back in a
ponytail, who was dressed in a leotard, and was hanging from the
ceiling. The gymnast fell towards Akane, wielding a big wooden mallet.

Akane jumped off her bed as the gymnast hit where she had been lying.
"Who are you?" she asked the girl.

"I am Kodachi, the Black Rose. I will be your opponent in next week's
match." the gymnast answered.

"So why are you attacking me now?"

"I believe in fighting fair.... before the fight." Kodachi answered as
she charged at Akane.

Akane snap kicked Kodachi out of her open window. "I'm too tired to
handle your kind of idiocy right now."

***********************************************

Ukyou rushed to get to the Tendo Dojo. She was late. Today had been so
hectic at her restaurant that she hadn't even had time to take off the
binding she used to disguise herself as a guy. Instead, she had just
thrown on her chefs clothes and opened for business. From then until
she had seen the last customer out the door, she had been worked off
her feet. She really needed an assistant, but she wasn't sure she could
afford one at this fledgling stage of her business. Certainly she'd
only be able to offer minimum wage.

She looked up as she heard a cry. She saw a girl fly out of Akane's
window. [Damn.] Ukyou thought. [Must be Ranma in girl form. Better save
him, I can't talk to him if he's unconscious.]

She leapt into the falling girl's path, catching her as she flew past.
Ukyou landed easily, and had a good look at who she had caught. It
wasn't Ranma. "You ok?" Ukyou asked. [Uh oh. I've seen that look
before.]

Kodachi looked at her saviour. [He's gorgeous.] She fiercely hugged
Ukyou as she said "I was so frightened!"

Ukyou froze up. [Ohh noooooo.] she thought. This wasn't the first time
a girl had fallen for her because they thought she was a guy. There was
no way she was going to admit to being a girl, she had done that the
first time this happened, and had had to move to another school because
of the aftermath.

Kodachi was in heaven. She had given up hope of finding her perfect
man, since she went to an all girls school. And now, he had dropped
into her arms. Well, the other way round, really. "Please sir, may I
ask your name?" she asked.

Ukyou tried her best to get out of the embrace. Finally, she managed to
pry Kodachi off. "I'm Kuonji Ukyou. Look, I'm sorry but..."

"For you." Kodachi said as she handed Ukyou a bouquet of black roses.

Ukyou resignedly took them. Curious as to what black roses would smell
like, she sniffed them. Her eyes widened as she felt her limbs go
numb.  She tumbled to the ground as her body refused to respond.

"A bit of paralysis gas." Kodachi explained as she laughed a maniacal
laugh.

"You're crazy!" Ukyou snarled, shuddering at that horrible laugh. She
was lying on her back, unable to move more than an inch or so in any
way.  She tried to say more, but the gas started to numb her lips.

"Now then, kiss me, Ukyou-sama." Kodachi said as she leaned down on
Ukyou. Ukyou tried to move through willpower alone, but her body just
wasn't going to co-operate. Revulsion covered her face as Kodachi's
face drew closer.

Before Kodachi could kiss Ukyou, someone grabbed her by the back of her
leotard and lifted her off Ukyou. Ryouga-chan turned Kodachi around so
that she was facing her as she hung a foot off the ground.

"You again?" Ryouga-chan asked Kodachi irritably.

"Such tragic timing. You're that Ryoko girl, aren't you? My brother
speaks of you often." Kodachi said. She pulled out a gymnast's club and
hit  Ryouga-chan on the arm, forcing her to let go of Kodachi. Once
free, Kodachi flipped back out of Ryouga-chan's range.

"You're beginning to get on my nerves." Ryouga-chan said as she
clutched her numb arm.

Kodachi ignored her. She turned to Ukyou, who was still paralysed, and
said "Ukyou-sama! We shall meet again!" She leapt off onto a
neighbouring rooftop. Within seconds, she had disappeared from view.

"I wonder who her brother is?" Ryouga-chan asked herself. Then, she
walked up to Ukyou, concern on her face. "What's wrong? Why don't you
get up?"

"Par....lys...gss." Ukyou grated through numb lips.

"Oh." Ryouga-chan carefully picked Ukyou up. "Better get you inside.
It's too cold out here."

Ukyou watched in despair as Ryouga-chan promptly got them lost. It was
sheer hell to want to be able to scream out 'Not that way, you idiot!'
and not be able to.

***********************************************

Two girls watched as Ryouga-chan carried Ukyou down a street.

"Well, that's a turn up for the books." the first noted to the second.

"I say good on her. If a girl can be swept off her feet, why not a
guy?" the second replied.

***********************************************

Ukyou dragged Ryouga-chan back towards the Dojo. Luckily, the paralysis
had worn off before they left the city. It had only taken an hour on
buses and trains to get back.

"I'm sorry." Ryouga-chan said, again, as she looked at an angry Ukyou.

"Believe me, I'm not angry at you. I've come to expect you getting
lost. I'm angry at that Kodachi woman. How dare she? Bad enough she
thinks I'm a guy, although I admit I brought that on myself, but for
her to try and force herself onto me? She's insane!" Ukyou growled.

"So if she comes onto you again, you'll tell her you're a girl?"
Ryouga-chan asked, interested.

"Are you kidding? Tell me, what would you do if you pledged your
undying love to someone, and it turned out to be a guy who just
disguised himself as a girl?"

"I would be..... unhappy." Ryouga-chan understated.

"Yes, well unhappy doesn't even begin to describe it. This has happened
to me before, although thankfully never with anyone as weird as
Kodachi.  I've lost some good friends because they admitted they loved
me, and then I told them I was a girl. I'm not afraid of distancing
this gymnast girl, but who knows who she would tell? For that matter,
what would someone as crazy as her do to me if they found out I was the
wrong gender?"

Ryouga-chan quickly quashed some images in her mind of Kodachi
gratefully hugging an obviously female Ukyou. "So, what will you do?"

"I'll let her down, gently. And hope she takes breaking up better than
she does getting together." Ukyou answered.

***********************************************

Morning at Furinkan High School. Akane was talking to some girls about
her representing the school in the Rhythmic Gymnastics match. Ranma was
nearby, actually resisting his urges to make unwise comments for once.
Ryouga-chan had left them to walk over to Ukyou, who had just entered
the school gates.

Akane, sensing danger, swung around to see Kodachi, wielding a shinai,
flying towards her. As Kodachi swung the wooden practice sword at
Akane, Akane grabbed it with her hand.

"You again. Ambushing me this early in the morning!" Akane said,
disgusted.

"I was doing no such thing. I merely came to visit my Ukyou-sama."
Kodachi replied calmly.

"Ukyou-sama?" Akane asked. She grinned. She till owed Ukyou for cutting
her hair, and for making her believe she was still engaged to Ranma
(Ok, so that was Ryouga who made her think that. Akane wasn't too
rational when it came to competition.). "Well then, there he is." she
said, throwing the shinai that Kodachi still had a death grip on at
Ukyou's general direction.

Kodachi flipped over a few times in mid air before landing near Ukyou
and Ryouga-chan. "Oh! Ukyou-sama!" she cried when she spotted Ukyou.

Ukyou looked into Kodachi's face, and the words she was about to say,
which were about being friends and all that, died on her lips. A more
primal emotion, fear of a predator, took over and Ukyou bounded away
from Kodachi. "I can't handle this right now." Ukyou said to herself.

Ryouga-chan shook her head and started running after Ukyou. Kodachi
chased Ukyou as well, shouting out "Ukyou-sama! Wait!"

After a while, Ukyou got herself under control again. Running away
would only compound the problem. As Kodachi ran up to her, Ukyou held
out a hand to stop her. "Kodachi, wait. I don't love you."

"What?" Kodachi cried. "You didn't act that way last night. You held me
in my hands, loving me as I loved you. Tell me it isn't so!"

Ukyou was sweating. This wasn't going so well. Kodachi looked ready to
kill her if she didn't say the right thing. Ukyou could tell that
Kodachi just wasn't going to give up that easy. Some of the other girls
who had come onto her had been hard to shake off, but there was still
one trick up Ukyou's sleeve. It almost always worked.

"I'm afraid it is true. I have already given my heart to another."
Ukyou said melodramatically. "You see, I am already engaged." Ukyou
smiled to herself.  There. That should get Kodachi to give up.

"Engaged? To whom?" Kodachi asked, a dangerous tone to her voice.

[Oops.] Ukyou thought to herself. [What do I say? I can't say Ranma,
he's a guy and I've formally annulled that. There's got to be a way to
get rid of this girl.] Girl. Maybe that was it. Ukyou looked at
Ryouga-chan, who was nearby, listening to the conversation.

Ryouga-chan looked at Ukyou as she looked over at her. Something was
about to go wrong. She was sure of it. She got that confirmation as
Ukyou walked up to her, put an arm around her shoulders and whispered
to her "Please, PLEASE play along with this."

Ukyou turned to Kodachi and said. "Here she is. This is my fiance,
Hibiki Ryoko."

"What?!?" Kodachi said.

Ryouga-chan must have agreed with Kodachi, because she said "What?!?"
as well.

A crowd had formed around this little confrontation, and there were
murmurs from them as well when Ukyou made the announcement.

"Isn't that right, Ryoko?" Ukyou said, a bit of pleading creeping in
her voice as she tightened her hold on Ryouga-chan's shoulder. If
Ryouga didn't say yes, then she didn't know how she'd get rid of
Kodachi. Telling her that she was a girl seemed suicidal at this
moment.

Ryouga-chan looked into Ukyou's eyes. There was a desperate pleading
there. This was really a situation she could have done without. Lying
about your gender is bad enough, but lying about that and pretending to
be engaged to a girl disguised as a boy was enough to give her a
headache.  But Ukyou needed her help. She deserved better than what she
had been dealt in life as it was. Kodachi on top of everything else
would just be unfair. "Y.. yes. That's.... right. Ukyou and I are....
engaged." she said.

"So. How interesting." Kodachi said. She snapped her ribbon at
Ryouga-chan, who jumped over it. "I hear you trained Akane for our
match, Ryoko. Since I'm sure you have faith in your student, you won't
mind wagering Ukyou on the match. If I win, he shall be mine."

"What?!?" Ukyou shouted. "You _are_ insane!"

"I think it is a fine idea." Kunou said as he stepped up. "Akane, you
should save Ryoko from her plight by losing the match. Else I must stop
Ukyou from forcing himself on poor Ryoko."

Kodachi laughed. "She'll be losing anyway. Farewell." She twirled her
ribbon, letting loose a storm of black rose petals. While the petals
obscured everyone's view she bounded off, still laughing that horrible
laugh.

"Really. That girl is a deviant." Kunou said. "Still and all, take care
of my little sister, Ukyou."

"You're her brother?" Ukyou asked. "Figures."

"Be careful, Akane." Kunou said. "My sister can be so twisted. Watch
out.  When Kodachi wants a man, she doesn't let go. She'll surely try
something evil in the match."

"I don't believe this. I've just been bet on a martial arts match."
Ukyou groaned to herself. She turned to Ryouga-chan. "I'm sorry I had
to put you through that."

"Th...that's ok." Ryouga-chan stuttered. She was still a bit out of it
from Ukyou 'engaging' them.

"So you've been training Akane in this match thing? How is she?" Ukyou
asked.

Ryouga-chan sighed. "You're in trouble." she answered bluntly.

"Oh. Great." Ukyou responded gloomily as a crowd surrounded them,
asking them when they had got engaged.

***********************************************

Ranma, Ryouga, Akane and Ukyou were in the dojo. Ryouga was pushing
Akane hard in the training.

"This is not good." Ukyou said as she saw Akane's skills. "I have no
intention of 'dating' Kodachi. I'm still trying to work out how I
became a prize in this battle."

"Akane really is improving, although I'll deny it if you tell her I
said that." Ranma replied.

"Improving. Put yourself in my place, Ranma. Would you be calm if you
were depending on Akane to win the match to save _you_ from Kodachi?"

"If I was in your place I'd be running away. Very fast." he replied.

***********************************************

The week went by. Ryouga did his best to not get lost so that he could
get Akane prepared for the match. The one time he did get lost, Ukyou
went out after him. Somehow, she actually found him, within five hours
no less.  When Ranma curiously asked her how she managed to find
Ryouga, she replied that facing a date with Kodachi was a wonderful
motivator.

Yet again, the four teenagers were in the dojo. Ukyou was relieved to
see that Akane was attacking Ryouga with some skill. She had really
improved in the last week. The question is, would it be enough?

"What do you think?" Ukyou asked Ranma. "Can she win?"

"I don't know. In a fair fight, I'd say she had at least a decent
chance. But I've heard that a fair fight has nothing to do with
something Kodachi's involved in." Ranma answered as he watched Akane
whip her ribbon at Ryouga, who easily dodged. Ranma's eyes widened as
he saw that Akane was about to step on a carelessly forgotten gymnast
ball. "Look out Akane!" he cried.

It was too late. Akane's foot landed on the ball. She lost her balance
and fell, badly.

"Are you alright?" Ryouga asked Akane as Ranma, Ukyou and him rushed to
the fallen Akane.

"I...I think so." Akane answered.

"Try standing up." Ukyou said.

Akane tried. As soon as she put weight on the foot that had landed
badly, she groaned in pain and started to collapse. Ryouga and Ranma
quickly supported her on each side.

Ukyou knelt down and examined Akane's ankle carefully. After a couple
of minutes of checking it, and asking Akane where she felt pain, Ukyou
stood again and sighed. "It's no good. Ranma, you better go get the
first aid kit.  Her ankle is sprained. She won't be competing
tomorrow."

After setting Akane down in a sitting position, Ranma walked off to get
Kasumi, who would both know where the kit was, and would be the best
one to fix Akane's ankle.

"Doomed. I'm doomed." Ukyou said.

Ryouga sighed. He had hoped it wouldn't come down to this. He walked
over to a bucket full of cold water that was used to towel down with
after a workout. He upended the bucket on himself, changing to his girl
form. "I guess it's up to me to win this thing." She just hoped they
could find a set of tights that weren't too embarrassing.

***********************************************

Ryouga-chan wiped some blood from her lip. This match was really
beginning to anger her. Kodachi had cheated from the very start of
their battle.  Ryouga-chan looked down at Ukyou-piglet, who was chained
to her arm.  She'd have to ask Ukyou how she got splashed when the
match was over.  Kodachi had distracted Ryouga-chan just before the
match, and chained Ukyou-P to her.

It hadn't taken Kodachi long to realise that Ryouga-chan was going to
extraordinary lengths to protect the piglet. And so she deliberately
attacked the piglet in ways that forced Ryouga-chan to take the damage.
Ryouga-chan's advantage of greater strength and endurance were slowly
being eroded through fatigue and damage.

Ukyou-P had had enough. Bad enough that this psycho had come on to her,
worse still that she had been bet like an object in this match, but now
she was seriously endangering Ryouga's chances of winning. It was time
to even the odds. She leapt between Kodachi's legs and quickly entwined
the chain that attached her to Ryouga-chan around Kodachi.

Ryouga-chan saw her chance. There were two ways to win: knock out or
landing outside the ring. Right now, Ryouga was all for knock out. The
only real rule about Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics was that you had
to use the tools, you couldn't attack bare-handed. So Ryouga-chan
pulled out a gymnastics club and moved warily towards Kodachi.

Kodachi wasn't one to be caught for long, however. She quickly
disentangled herself and flipped back, throwing a ribbon at Ukyou-P as
she did so.  Ryouga-chan intercepted the ribbon with her hand and,
before Kodachi could land or let go, heaved the ribbon around. The
g-forces caused Kodachi to let go of her end of the ribbon, and she was
thrown out of the ring.

While in midair, Kodachi pulled up a whistle that was hanging from a
necklace and blew it. The ring Ryouga-chan was standing on shuddered,
and started to move to where Kodachi was falling to.

Ryouga-chan's eyes widened. She didn't know how this was happening, but
she wouldn't have it. The time to win was now, before she got hit too
many more times from attacks aimed at Ukyou-P. She twirled the ribbon
she still had in her hand and snapped it towards the falling Kodachi.

The ribbon wrapped around Kodachi's leg. With a mighty heave, putting
all her strength into it, Ryouga-chan pulled the ribbon around and
threw Kodachi in the opposite direction to what she had been going.

Kodachi felt herself being pulled in a new direction. She desperately
blew on her whistle again, just before she crashed through one of the
gymnasium's windows. The ring shuddered and stopped as it reached the
stands, it couldn't fit through the exits. Outside, Kodachi landed hard
on the driveway leading out of the school.

Inside, Ryouga-chan was pronounced the winner. As soon as the referee
let go of her hand from the usual victory posture, Ryouga-chan leapt
out of the ring, and charged beneath it. "Right!" she was heard to say.
"I don't know who's down here, but now you pay!" A pig was heard
bweeing its agreement.

Several feminine screams could be heard from under the ring. Within
seconds, Kodachi's fellow team members were streaming out from beneath
the ring, running away from the berserk Ryouga-chan.

***********************************************

Ryouga walked into the room that he, Ranma, and Mr Saotome shared.
After closing the door behind him, he looked around before locking the
door. He walked over to the window and made sure it was secure before
shutting the curtain. After carefully searching the room, including the
closet to make sure that he was definitely alone, he plopped down into
a sitting position on his futon with a sigh.

No-one else was home at the moment. Kasumi was out shopping, Nabiki was
no doubt off extorting someone, Akane was doing her best to clobber
Ranma (incidentally chasing him half way around town), and Soun and
Genma were in the dojo, actually teaching a class for once. Ukyou was
running her business, although she would have been understanding if she
had found out what he was doing, she had had doubts about herself as
well. Ryouga blessed whatever gods had allowed him to find his way to
his room so quickly while everyone else was occupied. Especially
Nabiki. Ranma might have easily forgiven her for her little stunts, but
Ryouga was never one for letting a grudge go quickly. He couldn't
afford to let her find out about what he was about to do, or she would
be screwing money out of him for the rest of his life.

Doing one last quick look round, Ryouga slowly pulled a brown
paper-wrapped package out of his schoolbag. Carefully he unwrapped the
package, revealing a book. This book had cost him more in embarrassment
to buy than any other thing in his life, and he wasn't going to
accidentally damage it now. Looking around once again, just to make
sure, he opened the book to the first page, revealing its title: 'So
now you're a woman: A girls guide to growing up.'

"I'm gonna get on top of this girl stuff even if it kills me." Ryouga
muttered to himself as he started to read.

***********************************************

Ryouga fell over. That seemed to be happening a lot. Perhaps because he
was currently in the middle of an ice rink, wearing skates, but this
was the first time in his life he had skated.

Ukyou shook her head. Perhaps inviting Ryouga on a skating trip hadn't
been the best idea. She had done it sort of as a way of thanking him
for his efforts in the gymnastics match. He had really taken some bad
hits protecting her during the fight. Taking him skating seemed like a
good way to say thank you.

Unfortunately, she had taken Ryouga's nervous insistences that he could
skate at face value. It turned out that one of the few things he hadn't
learnt on his frequent trips was how to skate. It was almost funny. The
man had at least a passing knowledge of the customs, cultures and
languages of practically every country in the world, and yet he
couldn't stay upright on ice. You'd have thought he'd have learned it
during his travels.

Ryouga tried to get up, but overbalanced and fell on his face. Ukyou
sighed.  She was glad that Ryouga was in his guy form, and that she had
come as a girl. She had even braided her hair and was wearing girl
clothes, including a skirt to make sure her school mates didn't think
she was 'guy' Ukyou. So, they were in the forms less recognisable to
their school mates, and there were several people from school at the
rink. She was glad they weren't recognisable to their school mates
because Ryouga was being really embarrassing.

Ryouga had managed to stand. He was half-crouching, and he was waving
his arms a lot, but he _was_ standing. Ukyou decided that Ryouga had
suffered enough, and skated up to help balance him. "Now I'm glad that
we came like this. We'd never live it down at school if we'd come as
'Ryoko' and 'male Ukyou'."

"It's still embarrassing." Ryouga said as he leaned heavily on Ukyou.
If he hadn't been fighting to stay upright, he would have been blushing
at being in such close proximity to Ukyou. She didn't normally affect
him like that, but then she was normally dressed either as a guy or in
girl clothes that were still pretty androgynous. This was the first
time he had seen her really dress as a girl, and, when Ukyou had met
him at the Dojo, he had stuttered through their conversation there. She
could be incredibly cute when she wanted to be.

"Just relax." Ukyou advised. "Find your balance. It'll come to you in
time if you're patient."

"A woman as beautiful as yourself should be skating with a man who can
actually hold his own on the ice." a tall, handsome brown haired man
said to Ukyou. He was looking at Ryouga in amusement.

***********************************************

Ukyou tended Ryouga's cuts and bruises at the dojo. Ranma and Akane
were standing nearby, trying to understand what had happened as Ukyou
related it.

"So this guy, Mikado, just comes up to you and tries to kiss you?"
Akane asked incredulously.

"Well he did some small talk about how great I was, how great he was,
and how hopeless Ryouga was first. Then he tried to kiss me. That was
when Ryouga threw a couple of his bandannas at him." Ukyou said as she
finished bandaging Ryouga. "There. All finished." She sat down next to
Ryouga, facing Ranma and Akane. "So anyway, things went downhill from
there. Ryouga couldn't catch Mikado, so Mr Innovative here made it to
the fence and ripped it out. Ryouga then threw parts of the fence onto
the rink and used them as stepping stones to chase after Mikado without
falling on the ice."

"He had the advantage as long as we were both skating. I had to
eliminate that advantage, and it was the only way I could think of,
short of ripping out the ice. It worked, didn't it?" Ryouga said,
defending his actions.

"Worked at getting us banned from that rink." Ukyou retorted. "But he's
right, it did allow him to attack Mikado without tripping over. While
the two boys were running around the ring having fun, Mikado's partner,
Azusa, stole my scarf. She just literally skated by me, grabbed my
scarf, and skated off while calling the scarf some silly name. I think
it was Josephine. So I chased after her, trying to get it back."

"So what happened?" Ranma asked.

"Well, between Ryouga throwing bandannas at Mikado, and me throwing my
throwing spatulas at Azusa...."

"You started throwing your spatulas at Azusa?" Akane asked
incredulously.

"Well, she had just stolen off me, and she was really getting on my
nerves as she evaded me. So yes, I started throwing spatulas at her.
Back to my story, between Ryouga and me we were basically destroying
the rink.  Before we could do anything decisive to those two egotists,
we got thrown out of the place."

"Wait a sec." Ranma said, puzzled. "You got thrown out of the place in
the middle of a fight? How?"

"Big owner." Ryouga answered. "Very, very big owner."

"So we got thrown out." Ukyou continued. "Azusa and Mikado came out
after us, introduced themselves as the Golden Pair of Kolkhoz High, and
challenged us to a Martial Arts Skating match at their high school's
rink, a week from now. Ryouga here accepted the challenge before I
could do anything."

"I'm going to shove that guy's smile right down his conceited face."
Ryouga vowed.

"Yes, Ryouga, but aren't you forgetting something? Like, perhaps, the
fact that you can't skate? I'm not really that great either, I'm only
an average skater. And we've accepted a challenge from the best martial
arts skaters in the competition." Ukyou asked Ryouga irritably.
[Sometimes, he just doesn't think.] she thought.

"Well, yeah. But we've got a week. If Akane could learn Martial Arts
Rhythmic Gymnastics in a week, then I can learn how to skate. Besides,
we were doing a pretty good job of keeping them on the run at the
rink." Ryouga replied.

"And where are we going to practice?" Ukyou asked. "We've been banned
from the only rink within easily reachable distance. Furinkan doesn't
have a rink, and I don't think it would be a good idea to try and use
the one at Kolkhoz."

Ryouga grinned. "You're forgetting something. You'd made sure you
didn't look like your guy disguise while you were at the rink, and I
have 'Ryoko' to fall back on. There's no way we'll be recognised, we
can just go back to the rink dressed like we would when we go to
school, and we'll get in. We just have to be careful not to be banned
again. We haven't got a third disguise to fall back on."

***********************************************

Ryouga's predictions proved to be true. With Ukyou dressed as a boy,
her hair back in the normal ponytail hairdo, and Ryouga in female form,
they had no trouble getting back into the rink to practice.

Ryouga's skating skills improved pretty quickly. He wasn't exactly
doing triple spins or anything, but he had soon found his balance, and
by day two he could wobble around the rink. Ukyou found that helping
Ryouga learn was helping improve her skills too.

They saw the Golden Pair at the rink a fair bit. Mikado tried hitting
on Ryouga-chan, but she wasn't going to stand for it. The one time
Mikado had swept Ryouga-chan off of her feet, in preparation to bestow
the gift of a kiss on her, he found out that Ryouga-chan, having been
half-girl for months, had lost some of the moral restraints and
sympathies that most guys had. In other words, she kneed him as hard as
she could in his groin.

Every guy who had seen her do that had winced as Mikado slowly slid to
the ground. Besides Mikado's expression, as an added bonus for
Ryouga-chan no-one tried to hit on her again that evening. Ryouga-chan
began wondering if she shouldn't have tried that one long ago on
Kunou.

The week passed. Ukyou and Ryouga trained every moment they could spare
between school and Ukyou's work. Ryouga managed to convince Akane, a
good skater, to help him while Ukyou ran her store, so he managed to
get in a fair amount of time at the rink.

***********************************************

Ryouga entered the changing room at Kolkhoz High, Ranma in tow. Ranma
was making sure Ryouga didn't get lost before the match. Already in the
room was Sanzenin Mikado, who was combing his hair.

"So you came. I wondered if you would." Mikado noted.

"Hello Mikado." Ryouga said easily. "I heard you had an unfortunate
encounter with a girl at the rink a few days ago. I was told you were
speaking higher than she was for a while."

A shadow fell across Mikado's face for a few seconds. "I don't know
what you're talking about, not that it matters. Your partner.... what's
her name? I still haven't given her my..... formal greeting."

"Greeting?" Ranma asked from where he was standing in the background.

"Allow me to make this proclamation!" Mikado said as he pointed a
finger at Ryouga. "At some time during todays match, I shall steal the
lips of your partner!"

"What would you want with a pair of lips?" Ryouga asked, confused.

Ranma snickered at the expression on Mikado's face.

"I mean I'll kiss her you idiot!" Mikado shouted.

***********************************************

A large and noisy crowd yammered in the stands of the Kolkhoz ice rink.
The announcer began his spiel. "Kolkhoz High versus.... two mystery
skaters, school unknown! The battle is about to begin!"

An expectant hush fell over the crowd. The announcer continued. "Now
let the lights be lowered." The lights above the rink dimmed.

The Golden Pair skated out onto the rink, Mikado using one of his arms
to support Azusa over his head as they made a flashy entrance. "The
Golden Pair of Martial Skating! Shiratori Azusa and Sanzenin Mikado!
Making a magnificent entrance."

Mikado skidded to a halt in the centre of the rink. After a minute of
posing with Azusa, he let her down. He stared at their opponents, who
were about to make their own entrance. "This should be good." he said
to Azusa. "My sources tell me that they weren't seen at any rink in
Tokyo after we challenged them. That guy was hopeless, they'll fall
flat on their face before they even reach us."

Ryouga and Ukyou were at the edge of the rink, staring at the Golden
Pair's posturing with bemusement. They were dressed in matching
costume, both of which were predominantly black. They both had studded
armbands/bracers and studded white belts. Ukyou had braided her hair
again, so that the Pair would recognise them, and anyone from their
school in the crowd wouldn't.  Her costume had floral decorations which
made a contrast to the abstract patterns on Ryouga's costume.

"Huh. They're full of themselves." Ryouga noted.

An official stepped up to them and said "Excuse me, you haven't told us
what your names are or which school you come from yet."

Ukyou and Ryouga looked at each other before Ukyou spoke up. "This is
Hibiki Ryouga, and I am Kuonji...." she paused as she saw a friend from
school in the crowd. "Yukiko. I am Kuonji Yukiko."

Ryouga looked at her in surprise for a moment, then he turned to the
official and added "It doesn't matter which school we come from."

The official shrugged. It wasn't his problem if they didn't want to
give their school's name. He walked off to the announcer so that they
could be announced.

Ryouga turned to Ukyou again. "Yukiko?" he asked.

Ukyou looked embarrassed. "Well, Ukyou is a guy engaged to this girl
Ryoko, right? I'm just poor little Yukiko, a girl who Mikado tried to
take advantage of."

"In other words, you don't want people in the crowd to think you're
Ukyou, right?" Ryouga asked.

"You catch on quick when you want to. Time to make our own entrance.
Got any ideas on how to show those two up?"

"Hmmm....." Ryouga hummed. "They don't know that I can skate ok now, so
anything we do will probably take 'em off guard. How about we..." he
began to outline an idea to Ukyou.

***********************************************

Ranma sat down in the seat next to Akane. Nabiki and Genma-panda were
sitting in front of them. "I saw Mikado when I took Ryouga to get
changed. I was wondering why Ryouga and Ukyou were going through with
this, but then Mikado opened his mouth. You wouldn't believe his ego!"

"Wow, must be pretty bad if you spotted it." Akane said as she smirked.
"He couldn't be any worse than that Azusa girl. I saw her when I was
helping Ukyou change. She tried to steal Ukyou's costume! I had to
fight her off! She had the brains of a three year old."

"Oh yeah? Well get this. Mikado swore to Ryouga that before the match
was over he would steal a kiss from Ukyou." Ranma retorted in a my guy
is worse than your guy sort of way.

"How did Ryouga take that?" Akane asked curiously.

"Very well, especially for him. He just sort of chuckled, and said that
Mikado would be lucky if he didn't need the kiss of life after he was
through with him. It started to degenerate from there, so I threw
Mikado out until Ryouga finished changing."

Akane looked down at the rink. "Looks like Ryouga and Ukyou are about
to make their entrance."

***********************************************

Ryouga lifted Ukyou up with his left hand so that her waist was even
with his face. He looked up at her and said "You ready?"

"You sure you can pull this off?" Ukyou asked dubiously.

"No." Ryouga answered, and then he threw Ukyou up into the air with a
mighty heave. She sailed out above the rink, continuously flipping over
and over again. Ryouga skated out onto the rink and quickly moved to
where he had aimed for Ukyou to hit. He skidded to a halt and held his
left hand above his head, palm flat. Ukyou stopped spinning as she
neared him, and she held out her right hand. With a slap of hands,
Ukyou's hand landed on Ryouga's.  For a second, Ukyou was balanced
above Ryouga. Before she could fall, Ryouga spun his hand so that she
flipped over. He caught her around the waist with his right arm, and
sat her on his shoulder. They both raised their arms in a salute to the
crowd as the crowd roared their approval.

"And the two mystery skaters make their entrance, with a dazzling
display!" the announcer shouted. There was a pause, and then he
continued. "Oh, and wait.... it seems we now have names for the two
skaters. They are Kuonji Yukiko and Hibiki Ryouga, but they're not
telling us which school they come from!"

In the crowd, Ranma turned to Akane and said "Yukiko?". Akane responded
by shrugging.

Mikado and Azusa stared at their opponents. "Not bad, for amateurs."
Mikado said.

"And the match begins." the announcer cried. "A match over... what's
this over again?" Someone whispered something to him. "Another match
over Mikado's right to kiss a girl. We've seen it before, we'll see it
again. A no holds barred battle, to be decided by complete knockout!"

Mikado grabbed Azusa's hands and began to skate towards Ryouga and
Ukyou, who clasped hands and started forward as well.

Ryouga swung Ukyou at Mikado, using her as a human weapon. Mikado
sideskated out of the way as he threw Azusa up into the air. While
Ryouga was offbalance  from swinging Ukyou around, Azusa landed on him,
kicking him on the cheek before pushing herself off back to Mikado's
waiting arms.

Ryouga wobbled from the blow before he recovered. Ukyou landed lightly
next to him as he set her down. Ryouga was looking a little dazed as he
tried to recover from the kick.

Mikado saw this as his opportunity. He skated up to Ukyou, who was
distracted by Ryouga's condition. "A girl in a pigtail is the most
beautiful girl of all.  You are looking lovely today." he said as he
lowered his head towards hers, his lips ready to steal their prize.

"Oh, Sanzenin going straight to his specialty 'Kiss Attack'!" the
announcer cried as the crowd 'oohed'.

Mikado was jerked back by something that was attached to his hand.
Ryouga was standing next to him, a bandanna in his hand. It was the
bandanna that was attached to Mikado. Ryouga smiled. "I'll see you dead
before I let you kiss her. Can't run away when we're tied together like
this, can you?"

Azusa skated past Ryouga, slamming her elbow into his side as she did
so. "You leave San-chan alone!" she cried.

Ryouga drifted back, stunned by the blow. Mikado took this chance to
untie the bandanna around his wrist, and threw it to the icy floor. As
Ukyou skated over to rejoin a recovering Ryouga, Azusa spied the fallen
bandanna and skated to it, crying out "Oooo! Francoise! My little
Francoise!"

"This could be going better." Ukyou noted dryly to Ryouga as he
straightened up from Azusa's blow.

"We've got to break them up." Ryouga said, wincing as he felt at his
side.  "Their strength is in their teamwork. We've got to take that
away from them."

Ukyou nodded. They clasped hands and turned to face the Golden Pair.

"You show tenacity." Mikado said to Ryouga as they faced off across the
ring. Azusa was next to him, squealing at her 'Francoise'. "You seem to
be quite the little couple."

Ryouga was angry, especially at Mikado. People who know Ryouga know
that he always gets himself into trouble when he's angry. (Ranma gets
into trouble by being Ranma.) For over two weeks, he and Ukyou had been
pretending to be engaged at school. They hadn't gone out of their way
to do it, but whenever people asked them, they agreed that they were.
Like calling himself Ryoko when he was a girl, and calling Ukyou 'him'
and other male pronouns when she was dressed as a boy, Ryouga had
gotten into the habit of saying that he (as Ryoko) was engaged.

So it was that Ryouga angrily shouted at Mikado "Damn right we're a
couple. Ukyou is my fiance, and I'll not let you near her!" Luckily for
Ukyou, her alias, Yukiko, sounded similar enough to her real name that
Mikado heard 'Yukiko'.

Ukyou stared at Ryouga. Was he just posing, or did he actually take the
fake engagement seriously? Perhaps he just got carried away? Did she
want him to take it seriously? Her eyes narrowed. Questions for another
time.  She wasn't going to lose this match. Not now.

Mikado smiled. "So, your fiance, huh? Well, I shall do all in my power
to break her from such a bond." Azusa latched onto his shoulders as he
began to skate towards the couple. Soon Azusa was flying behind Mikado
like a flag flying in the wind, her hands clasping Mikado's shoulders.

"This is it!" the announcer shouted with a gasp. "Sanzenin Mikado and
Shiratori Azusa's ultimate move! The couple cleaver!"

"Come on." Ryouga said. "Let's win this."

"Yes." Ukyou replied as they started forward.

The two teams skated past each other again. Ryouga let loose a kick at
Mikado while Ukyou tried to elbow Azusa. Azusa dodged by jumping up
into the air.  Mikado caught Ryouga's foot and slammed him into the
ground. Azusa landed, and quickly grabbed Ryouga's feet while he was
momentarily stunned. Mikado grabbed Azusa's ankles as Ukyou, who didn't
like the looks of this, grabbed at Ryouga's wrists so she could pull
him free. Ryouga instinctively grabbed back at her wrists.

With a grunt, Mikado lifted Azusa above his shoulders and began to
twirl around in the one spot. As Ryouga and Ukyou were attached to
Azusa, they began to rise off the ground as they were spun around and
around by the centrifugal force of Mikado's spinning. "The goodbye
whirl!" Mikado shouted.

Ryouga tightened his grip on Ukyou as he felt the g-forces start to
tear her out of his grasp.

"Release her and I'll stop spinning!" Mikado shouted at them.

"What?!?" Ryouga shouted.

"Let me go Ryouga!" Ukyou shouted.

"No!" Ryouga cried back. "I won't let them hurt you!"

"If he betrays his partner and lets go...." the announcer cried, "...
he alone will be spared!"

"Damn it Ryouga! Bad enough in the gymnastics match, I don't want you
hurt because of me again!" Ukyou cried out as she felt Ryouga's grip
slip slightly.

"I'll never let scum like Mikado hurt you!" Ryouga shouted back.

"Heh." Mikado snickered as he continued to spin. "The more you trust
each other, the greater the shock when he finally lets go!"

Ryouga narrowed his eyes as he felt Ukyou slip a little again. He had
to do something. Straining, he looked back at Azusa. She had his legs
over her shoulders, so that his feet were in front of her face. If he
was willing to hurt the girl, he might be able to save Ukyou.

Ryouga looked at Azusa, who was starting to look a little green from
the spinning, then turned back to look at Ukyou. [No choice, really.]
he thought to himself. He tightened the muscles in his legs and
squeezed his shins together.

There isn't anywhere near the crushing force available by squeezing
your shins as there is, say, with your thighs. But Ryouga had a hideous
amount of strength, so Azusa was soon starting to choke. Faced with no
alternative, she let go of his legs before he could really hurt her.

Ukyou and Ryouga flew from the Golden Pair, straight at the wall.
Seeing that Ukyou would hit first, Ryouga pulled her around so that he
slammed into the wall instead, his body cushioning her own impact.

Ukyou turned to face Ryouga. He was slumped against the wall, his eyes
half closed. His still held Ukyou's left hand in his right.
"That.........  hurt." Ryouga whispered to her.

"He never let go of her hand!" the announcer cried as most of the crowd
roared their approval. "They foiled the good-bye whirl!"

"Are you ok?" Ukyou asked Ryouga, concern on her face.

"I've.... been... better." Ryouga admitted. Ukyou helped him get to his
feet.  Ryouga's eyes watered as his body made some nasty popping
sounds. He groaned. "We need to do something now. I don't know how much
more I can take, but I've got to kill Sanzenin. We just can't lose! Not
after all this!"

Ryouga stared at the ice beneath him as he and Ukyou slowly skated away
from the wall. Mikado and Azusa were on the opposite side of the rink,
obviously getting ready for another attack. "We could win....." he said
thoughtfully, ".... if this ice wasn't here." His decision reached, he
raised his right arm, curling his hand into a fist.

"Ryouga, what are you doing?" Ukyou asked as she saw him make a fist.

Ryouga snarled and drove his arm into the rink beneath him. The ice
cracked. Slowly at first, then quicker, the cracks spread until the
rink broke apart into chunks of ice, floating on water. Ryouga and
Ukyou desperately dodged the sprays of cold water the breaking up of
the ice caused.

"That's right!" the announcer said. "This unique ring was created by
freezing a swimming pool."

"Ryouga you idiot!" Ukyou shouted as she dragged him to the middle of
the ice floe they were on. "There are people from our school here, we
can't let them see us change forms! Especially you! Why did you break
the ice?"

"I thought it'd be concrete or something underneath. Something solid
and not slippery like ice is. How was I to know they'd freeze a pool to
make this rink?" Ryouga defended. He stared at the Golden Pair, who
were on a similar floe to theirs.

Ryouga walked to the edge of the floe and crouched down. "It doesn't
matter." he said to Ukyou as he easily picked up a massive ice boulder
out of the water. "We can still win." He threw the boulder at the floe
the other skaters were on, and watched in satisfaction as it hit the
edge of the floe, tilting it over and throwing the Golden Pair into the
water.  He nodded in satisfaction as he saw attendants rush to pick the
two out of the water. Mikado had been turning blue, obviously starting
to suffer hypothermia. Azusa had faired better for some reason, but she
wouldn't be continuing either.

"Looks like Kolkhoz High's Golden Pair forfeit the match!" the
announcer cried. "But what about the winners? They look trapped out
there! Help won't be reaching them any time soon."

"Not the way I would have imagined winning." Ukyou said as she shied
away from some water that had leaked onto the floe. "But satisfying
nonetheless. Now how do we get off this thing without getting wet?"

Ryouga looked around. The ice they were on was near the centre of the
ring. No-one was going to be able to help them, the rink breaking up
hadn't been planned for by the attendants. "I don't know." he
admitted.

Ukyou was looking at the bandanna Ryouga was wearing. "Ryouga, didn't
you use your bandanna on Mikado? How come you've still got it on?"

"I've got lots of bandannas." Ryouga answered, shifting his weight as
the floe started to tilt. He sighed in relief when it righted itself.

Ukyou thought about how he had given her a handful of bandannas to
staunch her wound after fighting Kunou. She hadn't really noticed how
he always had a supply of those bandannas before. "How many?" Ukyou
asked intently.

"As many as I need. I honestly don't know how many I have." Ryouga
answered. He stared nervously as a chunk of the ice platform broke off,
leaving them with less dry space to be on.

"Give me them. As many as you can. I just hope that they're made of
strong enough cloth." Ukyou said.

"Why?" Ryouga asked as he started to rip bandanna after bandanna off
his head, handing each to Ukyou as he did so. "What are you going to
do?"

Ukyou started tying the bandannas together as quickly as she could.
"I'm going to make us a rope." she answered. With the infinite supply
of material Ryouga was giving her, she had created an orange and black
thirty foot long rope within a minute. Looking around at the floe, she
realised that they soon wouldn't have anything to stand on, it was
breaking apart.

She pulled a throwing spatula from out of her costume and tied the rope
to it. To the questioning look Ryouga had given to her about the
spatula, she said "Hey, I feel naked if I don't have a spatula on me."
She handed the improvised grapple and rope to Ryouga and said "Put that
strength of yours to good use and throw that spatula as hard as you
can, straight up."

Ryouga took the tied spatula, stared up at the ceiling, and threw it
with a grunt of effort. Ukyou held onto the other end of the rope,
watching the spare length quickly dwindle. [Hope I made it long
enough.] she thought. She sighed in relief as she saw the rope stop
ascending with a foot of bandannas left to spare. She tugged on the
bandanna rope a couple of times before turning to Ryouga. "You first,
you're the one who uses your curse as another identity."

"No, no. You go first. I..." Ryouga started.

Ukyou cut him off. "Get up that rope now or I'll throw you in the water
myself."

Ryouga complied, praying to himself that his bandannas and her spatula
could take the stress of supporting their weight. Luckily, they did. He
quickly reached the scaffolding the lights used, and jumped onto that.
A few seconds later, he helped Ukyou step onto the fittings as well.

"Well, I think that's enough skating for a while." Ryouga said as he
saw the last piece of the ice they had been standing on break up into
pieces too small to stand on.

***********************************************

After they had received their trophy for winning the match, the
triumphant pair retired to Ucchans restaurant to celebrate. Ukyou had
had to leave the shop closed for the day while she competed in the
skating match, but right now the feeling of victory was more than
making up for any lost revenue.  Ukyou and Ryouga were sitting down at
one of the tables, sipping at some tea.

"Well, you certainly cooled Mikado down." Ukyou said as she raised her
cup in salute.

Ryouga smiled. "It was certainly the high point of my day seeing him
being fished out of the water." He looked at the trophy, which was
sitting on the table, between them. "So what are you going to do with
that?"

Ukyou looked surprised. "Me? Don't you want it? In the end, it was you
who won it for us."

"That's not true. We won that match, not me. Anyway, you were the one
who saved us from the water. I think you should have it. Besides, at
least if you keep it here, you can enjoy it all the time. If I had it,
I'd probably lose it on one of my trips, or rarely see it if I left it
at the Dojo."

"Well, ok. If you want. I'll find somewhere to put it out here, it'll
add some character to the place."

Ryouga was about to suggest some places for the trophy when Ranma-chan
burst in, panting from a hard run. 'Hot water! Quick! Ryouga, Shampoo's
here!"

Ryouga paled.

"Shampoo? What is he talking about?" Ukyou asked.

"I'll explain in a minute. We have to get hot water!" Ryouga shouted as
he stood, running over to the stove.

One of the walls bulged before exploding inwards. A girl, about the age
of the others in the room, stepped through the new entrance. She had
light purple coloured hair, was dressed in a Chinese womens shirt and
pants, and was holding a bonbori (type of mace) in each hand. "Shampoo
kill girl type Ranma!" she shouted as she spotted Ranma-chan.

Ranma-chan eeped and dove out of the back entrance. Shampoo rushed
after her, screaming "Kurosu!"

Ukyou was beginning to glow with anger. "She wrecked my store!" she
growled as she ran over to where she had left her combat spatula. As
she picked it up, she vowed "I'll kill her!"

Ryouga ran over and restrained her from chasing after the wall
wrecker.  "Stop! Stop Ukyou! You don't know what will happen if you go
after her!  She'll kill you!"

"What are you talking about? I'm a damn good martial artist!" Ukyou
snarled as she struggled in his grip. "I can take care of myself!"

"So's Ranma, and look how he was running away!" Ryouga said into her
ear. "Just wait, I have to tell you about her."

Ukyou stopped struggling. Ryouga was right, Ranma had been running away
like his life depended on it. She had better find out what was going on
first. Then she could take the cost of that wall out of the girl with
the bad hair colour's hide. "Talk." she said as Ryouga released her.

***********************************************

It was early in the evening. Shin was at the door of his shop. It had
taken a fair while to set it up, but now he was ready to open it. Plus,
he now had time to go after Ryouga, whom he owed some pain. He sipped
at some tea, a concoction of his own devising, it contained some
strange and wondrous herbs. Like cinnamon, he couldn't stand tea
without cinnamon.

He started shuddering suddenly. He knew what that meant by now. He had
seen that Ryoko girl around a few times at the restaurant, he was
convinced that it was her Jusenkyo curse that made him react like
that.  She must be nearby.

Ranma-chan ran right past him, screaming "Get away from me you crazy
Chinese chick!"

Shin spat out the mouthful of tea he was drinking. He did that for two
reasons. The first was that it had been that girl who he was feeling
fear just looking at. That meant that she was Jusenkyo cursed as well.
Was there a Jusenkyo convention around here? The second reason was the
girl who was chasing the redhead.

"Shampoo?!?" he shouted out, half in query, half in puzzlement.

Shampoo skidded to a halt as she saw a familiar face. "Po Shin? What
you do here?"

<I've set up a shop here.> Shin answered, switching to Chinese. <More
importantly, what are you doing here?>

Shampoo looked for her quarry. She had escaped. No matter, she would
find this girl Ranma and kill her later. For the first time in a while,
she saw a familiar face, she could afford a few minutes out to talk.
<I'm fulfilling my obligations as an Amazon. That girl beat me in the
tournament, so I gave her the kiss of death.>

Shin shook his head. As the apprentice of the well respected elderly
female herbalist, Mai Ling, he had been one of the few outsiders
allowed into the Amazon village Shampoo came from without having to
worry about being killed off. The village had some truly archaic laws,
which Shin certainly didn't think much of, but had wisely kept his
peace on.

The first was a law that said that any male outsider who beat a female
of the village would have to marry the girl. This ensured that the
Amazon bloodline remained strong from infusions from the outside,
instead of weakened by them. The second, less agreeable law was that
any female outsider who defeated a villager was to be hunted down and
killed, either by the one defeated or by a relative if the defeated
girl had been killed. An interesting third law, rarely used, was that
if an outsider girl defeated a village male in combat, she had the
option of marrying him and joining the village as a fully accepted
sister. This particular law wasn't bandied around much, Amazon pride
didn't allow for outsider girls joining their group unless it couldn't
be avoided. The third law, like the first, had been created to
strengthen the Amazon bloodline, and were, in their own way, fair
enough.  The second law, however, had plunged the village into many a
war over the centuries. It was a sign of how strong the village's
fighters were that the small settlement had never been wiped out.

Now, Shampoo had followed some poor girl to Japan to carry out the law.
Shin sighed. He'd really hoped that no-one would ever have to suffer
again because of an outdated and, quite frankly, cruel law. So much for
hopes.

<Are you sure she's a girl?> Shin asked her.

<What do you mean, am I sure she's a girl?> Shampoo asked, puzzled.
<She's sure shaped like one. Of course she's a girl.>

<But she's Jusenkyo cursed. You've heard the legends, you know that she
could be anything, maybe not even human.> Shin retorted.

<How do you know she's cursed from Jusenkyo? How could you know?  I
think you're just making it up to stop me from killing her. The whole
village knew you didn't think much of our laws. The only reason you
weren't killed was out of respect for your master.> Shampoo replied.

<I'm hard to kill, I think you'll find. I will not stop you from
carrying out your stupid act of vengeance, Shampoo. But I suggest you
make sure first. You know the legends of Jusenkyo. Water has something
to do with how the curse is activated, although I'm not sure how it is.
Would you really feel right if you killed her, only to find out that it
was a man or some sort of animal?>

<I'm not going to stop until I have killed her. She is not cursed from
Jusenkyo, you are lying. You know I can't go back to the village until
I have completed the vow the kiss of death symbolises. I would be
ridiculed.> Shampoo replied. She raised a bonbori to point it at Shin.
<Don't get in my way. You would become an obstacle, and obstacles are
for killing.> She lowered the bonbori and ran off in the direction
Ranma-chan had taken.

Shin shook his head as Shampoo ran off. "I'm sorry, Shampoo." he said
to himself, switching back to Japanese. "I can't let you do this. It's
not fair on the girl you chase."

He set his cup down inside the store before closing the door and
locking it.  He stepped out onto the street. "But how do I find her to
help her?" he asked himself. He turned his head to Ucchan's, seeing
that there was a light on inside. "It can't be a coincidence that there
are two girls with Jusenkyo curses around here. That Ryoko girl must
know her, and she is often in there. I will ask her."

He walked towards the Ucchan, thinking about how he could talk to
someone who made him shake and stutter with fear.

***********************************************

Ryouga began his story to Ukyou. "After Ranma, Genma and me got cursed,
the Guide took us to a nearby village. When we got close...."

++++++++++++++++++++++ (Flashback:
 Ranma-chan, Ryouga-chan, Genma-Panda and the Guide are walking down a
 road when a young man with long dark hair, wearing glasses and dressed
 in long dark pants and a white robe-like shirt meets them.

 After the Guide has a long conversation with the man, he turns to the
 three cursed members and says "This is Mousse. He member of village we
 go to. He going there himself after long training trip, offer to
 escort us."

 Mousse bowed to the group, and said "Hello." in perfect, if slightly
 accented Japanese.

 The group bowed back, and Ranma-chan introduced them to Mousse.

 "So you're some sort of Martial Artist, are you?" Ryouga-chan asked
 Mousse as the group walked along the road.

 "Yes, I am a master of the Hidden Weapons School." Mousse replied.

 "Hidden weapons? Is it any good in a fight?" Ryouga-chan asked. There
 was a friendly rivalry between Ranma and Ryouga. Ranma was the more
 skilled and faster of the two, Ryouga relied on his superior strength
 and endurance to win the fights he did win. Ranma had learned aspects
 of the Saotome School that Ryouga would never be privy to, and so
 Ryouga tried to learn new martial arts whenever he could. He had even
 learnt Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics on one of his trips, although
 he didn't know if that would ever come in handy.

 "You could say that." Mousse answered. "I could show you some of it if
 you like."

 "Ok. Let's spar." Ryouga-chan said as she stopped, shucking off her
 pack. The other members of the group stopped.

 "What?" Mousse asked.

  "I said let's spar. Let's see how good you are." Ryouga-chan said as
 she limbered up.

 Ranma-chan, Genma-panda and the Guide shrugged and walked over to a
 nearby tree so that they could sit under its shade.

 "Are you sure?" Mousse asked. "It can be a dangerous thing to take on
 a Hidden Weapons fighter. I wouldn't want to hurt you just because you
 wanted a fight."

 "Oh come on, afraid of hurting me? I'm a gu.." Ryouga-chan paused,
 looked at herself, then continued "...well, ok. So I'm a girl. So
 what? You think that makes me any weaker?"

 "No, no. I'm not fool enough to think that. I do come from
 Joketsozuku, after all." Mousse answered as he did a quick couple of
 stretching exercises.  "All right, I will fight you."

 "This is going somewhere I hope?" Ukyou voice-over said.

 "Give me time." Ryouga voice-over replied. "Better to explain Mousse
 now, so I can tell you about Shampoo later."

 After a long and hard battle, Ryouga-chan managed to knock Mousse
 out.  She looked at her gi in wonder. It was in tatters, Mousse had
 proved to be a walking porcupine of edged weapons. The wonder was that
 she had gotten out with only a few scratches. He must have been
 holding back, or else she was either luckier or a better fighter than
 she thought.

 Ranma-chan whistled from where she was sitting. "Damn, he was good. I
 was beginning to think you were going to lose for a while there."

 Mousse rose from where he had fallen. He walked up to Ryouga-chan and
 bowed to her. "You are good. Possibly one of the best I have ever
 seen." he said. Then he hugged her in a friendly sort of way.

 Ranma-chan winced as Ryouga-chan pounded Mousse into the ground for
 hugging her. "Calm down Ryouga!" she said as she rushed up and
 restrained Ryouga-chan. Genma-panda had to help, Ryouga was still
 stronger than Ranma in either form. "He only hugged you. He was just
 being nice, it wasn't his fault."

 Ryouga-chan calmed down. "Sorry." she said to a battered Mousse.

 "That's ok." Mousse slurred as he tried to rise. "You get used to it
 when you live in my village. That's one of the reasons I left to
 pursue my training outside of it. I'd hate to think how I would have
 turned out if I had of remained there."

 As Panda led Ryouga-chan off to calm down, Ranma-chan helped Mousse
 up. "You'll have to forgive Ryouga." she said. "Being a girl is a new
 experience."

 "What do you mean?" Mousse asked.

 Ranma-chan thought about it. It didn't seem worth explaining the
 curse, if Ryouga wanted Mousse to know, he'd tell him himself. Or
 herself. Damn pop for this! "Never mind." she said. "Were you holding
 back?" she asked curiously.

 "Only a little bit." Mousse answered candidly. "I'd go at it a bit
 harder if it had of been a death duel. But she was good, and she beat
 me fair. She probably would have got me if I had of gone all out
 anyway."

 "Maybe. Next time, you probably should. Ryouga doesn't like it when
 you hold back."

 Mousse nodded. "I know many women at my village just like her."

 "How did you know that bit if you'd been led off?" Ukyou voice-over
 asked.

 "Ranma told me about it later." Ryouga voice-over answered.

 After resting for the night at that spot, they continued to the
 village in the morning. They were still in their cursed forms. They
 hadn't seen any water since Jusenkyo, and the water they carried with
 them was needed for drinking, it couldn't be spared to change them
 back. The only water at the Guide's place had been mysteriously
 knocked over, so they had been going to the village to get hot water.

 "I knocked over the wok when I jumped out of it." Ukyou voice-over
 told Ryouga.

 "Oh, I see. That explains why the Guide just blushed when he told us
 he had spilled his spare water." Ryouga voice-over said.

 The group entered the Amazon village to find that some sort of
 tournament was on. Two woman were fighting on a large log, suspended
 off the ground. One of the women was Shampoo, the other was an older,
 and quite frankly uglier woman, who was no match for her.

 "Man I'm hungry." Ranma-chan groaned as they stopped walking.  The
 group sat down at a table laden with food as they watched the fight.
 The Guide walked off to get the hot water that three of the group had
 been waiting over a day for. Mousse waved to some people in the crowd
 (he had his glasses on for once, so that he could properly see the
 fight), but he did not leave to meet them.

 Shampoo finished off her opponent by knocking her off the log.

 "Man, that girl has some power." Ranma-chan noted as she ate some of
 the food before her. Genma-panda was happily stuffing itself with food
 as well.

 Ryouga-chan turned to Mousse and said 'Is it ok to eat this food?"

 Mousse turned, saw that Ranma-chan and that panda were eating the food
 and said "Wait! Don't..."

 At that moment, a bonbori smashed into the table. Mousse sighed,
 turned and said "Shampoo." He began talking to her in Chinese. She
 seemed angry for some reason.

 "What's wrong?" Ranma-chan asked.

 "You just ate the first prize in the competition." Mousse answered.
 "Shampoo there, as champion, is not too happy about it."

 "Oh. One way to solve that then." Ranma-chan said. She leapt onto the
 log, and motioned Shampoo to join her. "If I win, it doesn't matter,
 right?"

 "What?!?" Mousse cried out. "You don't know what you're doing..." he
 stopped as Shampoo jumped onto the log. "Too late." he sighed.  "She's
 accepted her challenge, it's too late to back down now."

 "What do you mean? Why are you worried? Ranma's a good fighter."
 Ryouga-chan said as she began stuffing some of the food into her pack.
 After all, they were already in trouble over it, may as well save some
 for the trip.

 "Even worse then." Mousse replied. "You see, there are a few things
 about this village your friend obviously doesn't know about."

 "Und those arf?" Ryouga-chan asked as she gobbled down some food.
 Genma-panda had never stopped eating, not even when the bonbori had
 hit the table. Mousse shrugged and picked out a chicken leg to eat.
 They couldn't get into any worse trouble, and besides, he was a
 village member, so he could eat some without worrying about being
 killed, like Ranma would be in a minute or two.

 "Well you see..." Mousse paused as he realised something. The crowd
 watching the fight had stopped shouting a couple of seconds ago. It
 was deathly silent. All of a sudden, murmuring started throughout the
 crowd. Mousse turned from Ryouga-chan, adjusted his glasses, and
 squinted. "Uh oh." he said. He turned to Ryouga-chan and said "Get
 ready to leave." as he rested his glasses on his head.

 Shampoo, who had been knocked off the log by Ranma-chan, walked up to
 her and kissed her on the cheek.

 "Why? Ranma won right? Hey, why did that girl just kiss her?"
 Ryouga-chan asked.

 "Aiya!" the Guide, who had been returning with a kettle of hot water,
 screamed. He ran to Ranma-chan and grabbed her arm, dragging her off.
 "Hurry Miss Customer! She give you kiss of death, promise to hunt you
 down and kill you! We must get away!"

 "He's joking, right?" Ryouga-chan asked Mousse.

 "No, he's not. Come on, we've got to get out of here. She'll be after
 Ranma, but if you get in the way she'll kill you too." Mousse said as
 he stood.

 In the resulting confusion, as the panda grabbed its own and Ranma's
 pack, and the mad dash from the village, perhaps it was unsurprising
 that a half-blind boy and a directionally-challenged girl got
 separated from the others and got lost.

 Ryouga-chan turned to Mousse. The others were nowhere in sight.
 Neither was that Amazon girl, thankfully. "Where are we?" she asked.

 Mousse lowered his glasses over his eyes and looked at the bubbling
 lava in the crater of the volcano they were currently standing on. In
 the background, a twenty foot tall Iguana was trying to bite a fifty
 foot tall man in an ape costume. "I have no idea." he answered.

 "So you and this Mousse guy got separated from the others?" Ukyou
 voice-over asked.

 "That's right. I was really worried about Ranma, so we searched for
 him.  Mousse was a really great guy, he helped me out a lot on that
 trip. Even worse, I was stuck as a girl, because we couldn't afford to
 waste our water on the change. The one time we found a stream, we
 didn't have any matches left to light a fire, so we had to content
 ourselves with filling everything we could with water. Mousse had a
 LOT of things on him that we improvised as waterskins. But, by the
 time we found some matches again, we were too low on water to spare
 deactivating my curse again. I was stuck as a girl for an entire month
 as we searched for Ranma. It was an..... interesting experience.
 Probably the only reason I could handle going to school as one,
 though. Ranma hasn't been in his girl body for more than a couple days
 at a time, and you can bet he would have rather admitted to his curse
 than live as a girl. But that's besides the point, about a month after
 the village thing, we finally caught up with Ranma." Ryouga voice-over
 explained.

 Ryouga-chan saw Ranma-chan and Genma-panda hiding behind a pig trough.
 A duck wearing glasses was sitting on Ryouga-chan's shoulder, and
 Mousse was nowhere to be seen. Shampoo was running down a road,
 already past where Ranma-chan was hiding. Shampoo was wielding a very
 large sword as she searched for her prey.

 Once Shampoo had disappeared, Ryouga-chan steps out from behind the
 tree she had hid behind and rushed up to Ranma-chan. They hug for a
 moment before realising that's not a guy sort of thing to do, and
 release their embrace, each looking embarrassed. The duck quacked its
 greeting.

 "Duck?" Ukyou voice-over asked. "Where did the duck come from?"

 "That was Mousse." Ryouga voice-over answered with a sigh. "While we
 were looking for Ranma, we stumbled into Jusenkyo. Mousse wasn't
 looking where he was going, again, and he fell into the Spring of
 Drowned Duck. I fished him out and got us out of there as quickly as I
 could."

 The group quickly make its way to a nearby port city, as Shampoo
 continuously ambushes them along the way. Mousse manages to find some
 hot water along the way and turns back into a guy. As the group
 crouches in the shadows of a warehouse, waiting for a ship heading to
 Japan to leave, they hear Shampoo raging nearby.

 "Damn." Ryouga-chan said.

 "Don't worry about her, I shall distract her." Mousse said.

 "Are you sure?" Ryouga-chan asked. "She might kill you."

 "Shampoo is.... sort of a friend. We were friends when we were young.
 I sort of drove her away by trying to marry her for a while, but my
 master convinced me to go on a long training trip with him. When I got
 back, I found I no longer loved her like I had. She saw that I
 wouldn't try and marry her again, so she was friendly enough. I'm
 hoping that that friendship will be enough. If not..... well, we'll
 see. You two are my friends, I cannot let you be harmed over an
 unfortunate law that many in the village think should be abolished
 anyway." Mousse said.

 "Mousse..." Ryouga-chan said as he began to turn away.

 "Yes?" Mousse asked.

 Ryouga-chan reached out and pushed his glasses down onto his nose.
 "Wear your glasses. Less chance of you getting hurt that way." She
 turned to Genma-panda. "Where are we going when we reach Japan,
 furball?"

 The panda pulled out a sign which read {I plan on visiting a friend,
 Tendo Soun, in Nerima.} Ryouga-chan nodded, and turned back to Mousse,
 so she didn't see the panda turn the sign around, where it said {And
 show some respect for your master!}

 "If you get away, come visit us in Nerima." Ryouga-chan said to
 Mousse.

 Mousse nodded, pulled a nasty looking tri-bladed weapon out of a
 sleeve, and walked off in the direction he could hear Shampoo bashing
 around in.

 Ryouga-chan sighed. "He's a good friend. I hope he's not about to do
 anything foolish."

 "C'mon." Ranma-chan said. "We've got to get going while he distracts
 her."

 "Hai." Ryouga-chan said.

) ++++++++++++++++++++++

"All that for some silly village law?" Ukyou asked. "Why didn't you
just attack Shampoo? With you, Ranma, Genma and this Mousse guy, surely
you could have beaten her?"

"And then what? The only way to stop her was to kill her. None of us
wanted to do that. Although there were a couple of times when I
contemplated it. Would you be willing to kill her? It might be your
only recourse if you attack her." Ryouga replied, looking at Ukyou with
a questioning look.

"No, I guess not. But she better not come round here again."

***********************************************

Shin knocked at the door of Ucchan's. After about half a minute, it was
opened by that girl who worked here. The one who looked a lot like that
Ukyou guy, must be his sister. [Never have found out her name.] Shin
realised. "Please, it's urgent." Shin said as soon as the door opened.
"If you know where Ryoko is, I must speak to her. I need to find out if
she knows a pigtailed girl who is cursed like her. I want to help her
against a threat to her, but I can't do that if I can't find..." he
paused in his monologue as he saw Ryouga. "You!" he snarled.  "Thought
you'd be able to get away with it, did you?"

"What?" Ryouga asked.

"Tell me, were you ever in China, about two years ago?" Shin asked.

"Well.... yes." Ryouga admitted.

"Do you remember me?" Shin queried.

"Well..... no." Ryouga said.

"Well, I remember you. I had to go through another year of
apprenticeship because of you! The humiliation, the lost time that I
could have spent out in the world! Because of you." Shin snarled.

"And you blame me because....?" Ryouga asked, not really in the mood
for this.

"Can't this wait 'till morning?" Ukyou asked.

Shin pointed at Ryouga. "I was taking my final test for journeymanship
in my herbal craft two years ago. I had to make a precise and complex
potion out of rare herbs, which I also had to find. It was a hard task,
I gathered the herbs with just enough time to prepare them. I locked
myself in my preparatory room, and began mixing them carefully. At a
critical moment, you walked right up behind me, in a locked room, and
asked me where some guy called Ranma was! I was so shocked that I added
three drops of Distilled Changhai Fox Root instead of one."

"I can see how that ruined your life." Ryouga said sarcastically.

"Damn right! The potion was ruined, and I didn't have time or
ingredients to make another one. I failed my test, and had to serve
another year of apprenticeship because of it. Because of you."

"Didn't you say you had to find Ryoko?" Ukyou asked.

"Revenge comes before helping others." Shin replied. He took a flask
that was attached to his belt, opened it, and poured some of the liquid
it contained onto each of his hands before resealing the bottle and
reattaching it to his belt.

"What are you doing?" Ukyou asked.

Shin took a match out of a pocket and struck it. "This." he said. As
the match lit, the flame spread to the liquid on his hand, where it
caught fire. He held his flaming hand under his other hand, so that it
caught fire too. He balled his hands into fists, looking in
satisfaction at the corona of fire surrounding them.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Ryouga asked, curiously.

"I am a hardy man." Shin replied. "It takes more than a bit of fire to
hurt me." He ran towards Ryouga, driving his right fist at him.

Ryouga dodged. Unfortunately, the wooden chair couldn't. Droplets of
the burning liquid dripped off Shin's hand, starting a fire on the
chair.  Ukyou looked in dismay at the fire that was starting to spread
from the chair. "My restaurant!" she cried out before she ran to get a
fire extinguisher.

Ryouga-chan wasn't too worried as he dodged Shin. The trick with the
burning hands was impressive, but the guy was obviously not the most
skilled fighter around. He was telegraphing his punches so badly that
Ryouga had to resist the urge to yawn as he easily evaded them. Still,
this guy had to be stopped before he burned Ukyou's restaurant to the
ground. Ryouga dodged within Shin's range and set up a range of quick
body blows which made Shin fly back into a wall.

Ryouga nodded, satisfied. That should take care of him for a while.
Shin smiled as he peeled himself off the wall, seemingly none the worse
for wear. [Or maybe not.] Ryouga thought. [This guy's a monster.]

"Take more than that." Shin cried as he threw another punch. "Take a
lot more than that to stop me."

Ukyou was using a fire extinguisher to put out the several small fires
Shin had incidently started. [When I'm through with these, I'm going to
ram this fire extinguisher down that guy's throat. No-one ruins my
store!] she thought.

Ryouga stepped back, then stepped back again to avoid Shin's blows.
Then he put all he had into a kick that knocked Shin right through a
wall.

"RYOUGA!" Ukyou screamed. "Watch what you're doing!"

"Sorry." Ryouga said to Ukyou sheepishly. He looked back at the new
hole. [That'd have to put him down for a while.] Shin walked back in
through the hole, looking grim. [Maybe not.] Ryouga thought with a
sigh. [Wonder what he used on his hands, they've been burning for a
couple of minutes now, surely they should have burnt out.]

"You're good." Shin said as he stepped over the rubble. "Good enough
for me to do this." He put his hands under his arm pits, extinguishing
the flames. Then, he pulled the cold/breathing mask off his neck and
settled it over his mouth. Next he pulled on the goggles he also wore
on his neck. Then, he reached down to his bandolier, thumbed open one
of his pouches, and picked out a handful of a yellowish powder.

Ryouga couldn't believe this guy. He had just extinguished the flames
on his hands, possibly the only reason Ryouga had had any trouble with
this fight. Well, it was time to finish this jerk off. He charged the
herbalist, just as Shin threw the powder in Ryouga's face. "Number 23!"
Shin shouted. "Sneezing Powder." he added in a calmer voice.

Ryouga couldn't help it, he breathed some of it in. His face spasmed as
he tried to retain control over his body, but he failed. He started to
sneeze. Not a light sneeze either, but a full body, doubled over,
incapacitating, I can't stop sneezing type of sneeze.

Shin nodded in satisfaction. Ryouga was effectively out of the fight
until the powder wore off, which wouldn't happen for a couple of
minutes. That gave him time to think of which powders, herbs and
concoctions he had on him that he should use to give Ryouga the most
pain and embarrassment possible. [Perhaps a combination of number 10
and number 45, combined with a drop of number 78.] he thought.

(Now would be as good a time as any to say why Shin was thinking in
numbers. Simple answer: secrecy. Mystical herbalism, much like alchemy
and good cooking, is a closed and mysterious art, practised by few,
with powerful vows of secrecy attached. To prevent people finding out
how a particular potion or powder is made, herbalists from Shin's sect
used a system of numbers.  Number 92, for example, is Canadian Fire
Moss. Number 29 is crushed Hinjai Green Mushroom, and Number 124 is
black pepper.)

Unfortunately for Shin, before he could make his equations, he was
struck in the head by a giant spatula. "What did you do that for?" he
calmly asked Ukyou.

"What do you mean, what did I do that for?" Ukyou screamed at him.
"Look at my store! And you were attacking my friend!"

Shin looked around the store. "Whoops." he said. A lot of the
furniture, and several places on the wall were marred by burn marks.
There was not one but two giant holes in separate walls. Strange,
really, Shin only remembered making one. Must have made the other hole
without realising it. This was not good. He had damaged a place of
business.  Some people would shrug that off, and say so what, but Shin
was, at heart, a merchant. He would have screamed if he saw his store
in a similar state to this. And he had caused it, in his quest for
vengeance. Next time, he would have to fight outside.

"Um, sorry?" he tried.

"You will be." Ukyou vowed. Ukyou was a nice, sweet, kind girl. Most of
the time. But, she had spent ten years of her life living in
resentment.  Then she had been cursed with the form of  bacon short
cuts with feet.  On the plus side, she had been happy recently with her
new friends, Ryouga chief amongst them. But no matter how nice, or how
nasty Ukyou could get, you never, ever, _EVER_ wanted to wreck her
store or business. Heck, just ruining one okonomiyaki is asking to have
your arm broken.

"I'll pay for damages." Shin added as she hefted her spatula.

She paused for a moment, thought about it, then readied her spatula
again. "Ok. In a couple of minutes, I'll have done enough damage to you
to accept that. You did attack Ryouga, after all. Compared to what me
and him have gone through, your little sob story just doesn't cut it."

Shin thought about his options. This girl had done nothing to him. He
owed her a debt for damaging her store. She looked damn angry and that
spatula looked sharp enough to cut through concrete, let alone him.
Shin had spent a large part of his life in endurance training, poison
resistance and body toughness enhancing. He had devoted his life to his
herbs and to making himself as invincible as he could, and those two
things were often related. Number 210, for example, toughened the skin
considerably for a short period of time. But that didn't mean he was
going to stand there and get gutted out of any delusions about his body
being able to take being sliced by something probably sharp as or
sharper than a sword. It was time for a strategic withdrawal.

"Bye now." he said, running through the hole Shampoo had made.

"Get back here!" Ukyou shouted as she ran outside.

"Ukyou!" Ryouga shouted. He had finally recovered from that horrible
sneezing fit the herbalist had given him. If he had more like that up
his sleeve, she could be in danger. He chased after her.

***********************************************

Shin leaned against the water tower, gasping for breath. [Finally lost
her.] he thought as he felt himself recover from his run.

"Found you." Ukyou said as she swung her combat spatula at him.

"Wargh!" Shin cried as he dropped to his knees to avoid the blow.

Ukyou's spatula ground into the water tower. Ukyou had about a second
to realise her mistake before water burst out, splashing all over her
and turning her into her pig form.

Shin's eyes widened as he saw the transformation. He could feel fear
well up inside him as he stared at the pig. If he could have thought
rationally at that moment, he would have realised another piece of the
puzzle about his Jusenkyo phobia: it only affected him when the person
was in their cursed form.

Ukyou-P looked at Shin with a mixture of anger and curiosity. He was
afraid of her. He was afraid of her like this. The pig grinned. No-one
had ever been afraid of her in this form before. It was liberating.
After living in constant fear every time she was in this form, worrying
about being stepped on or cooked or eaten by a dog or whatever, she had
found someone who feared her as a pig. With a piggy grin, she stepped a
little closer to Shin. He backed away just as far. This could be fun.

Ryouga caught up at last, and took in the scene. There was Shin,
backing away from a grinning Ukyou-piglet. Ryouga saw Ukyou's clothes
in a puddle of water and picked them up, changing into his girl form
from the spray of water from the water tower as he did so. Ryouga-chan
pried the spatula out of the tower and tied it to her back with a
couple of her bandannas as the tower, freed of its spatula plug, burst
out it's water. "Oops." Ryouga-chan said. She looked around to make
sure Ukyou was alright, and saw the piglet was halfway up the street,
chasing after Shin who was screaming in terror.

Ryouga-chan looked at the clothes in her hand. Ukyou would be in
serious trouble if turned back into a girl without these. Plus, she was
in danger as long as she was a pig. "Ukyou, be careful!" she shouted as
she chased after the piglet.

***********************************************

Ranma-chan ran into the Tendo residence. She rushed to the kitchen and
poured hot water on herself. Ranma sighed as the worries of being
hunted faded. This was the second time today that he had been chased as
a girl. In between those, he had defeated Shampoo as a guy, basically
by accident, because she had been threatening Akane. Now, Shampoo
wanted to marry his guy side, and kill his girl side, not knowing that
they belonged to the one person.

This sort of situation sucked. Still, he was safer from Shampoo as a
guy. Akane was a different story. She had been NONE TOO HAPPY when
Shampoo glomped onto him after she realised that a man had defeated
her.

Ranma sighed as he walked outside. He had lost Shampoo somewhere along
the way, but he was sure she'd be back soon. She did, after all, know
where he lived. Perhaps he could do Ryouga a favour and ask her what
happened to Mousse. Then again, considering the verve she put into
trying to kill his girl side, perhaps he didn't want to know.

***********************************************

Shin fled down a street, crying out a terrified "Waaaaahhhhh!" as he
ran. Hot on his heels was Ukyou-piglet. Chasing after Ukyou-P was
Ryouga-chan, Ukyou's clothes held in her hands.

"Get away from me!!!!!" Shin shouted at both Ukyou-P and Ryouga-chan as
he continued to run away as fast as he could.

"Bukee!" Ukyou-P..... bukeed.... as she chased after Shin.

"Ukyou! Be careful, you're in your cursed form!" Ryouga-chan shouted as
she tried to catch up to Ukyou-P. Damn, she would have never expected a
pig could run so fast.

One bystander turned to another and said "And people wonder why the
property values are shot in Nerima."

***********************************************

Shin had never run so fast in his life. Right now, he was running past
the Tendo Dojo, Ukyou-P and Ryouga-chan still in hot pursuit.

Ranma shook his head as Shin "Waaaahhhh"ed past him. [Man, and I
thought my fear of cats was embarrassing.] he thought to himself. Then
he saw Shampoo running towards him, shouting out "Ai len!", and sighed.
He was starting to think that this just wasn't his day.

"Bwee!" Ukyou-P bweed at Shin, which translated to 'Get back here so I
can punish you for wrecking my store!'

***********************************************

An hour later, at Ucchans, Shin was sitting down opposite Ukyou and
Ryouga, neither of whom were looking too happy at him at the moment.
It had been a long and hard chase, but Shin had finally thought
rationally and dived into a public bath house.

Ukyou had changed back to her human form on the girl's side, while
Ryouga, who had changed back when he tripped over Ukyou-P into one of
the hot baths on the guy's side, happily beat up on Shin. After Ryouga
dragged him out of the building and Ukyou could berate him for a while,
a temporary truce had been called by Shin.

"So, you're Ryoko." Shin said to Ryouga. "Do you know the pig-tailed
Jusenkyo girl?"

"Yes, I do. What's she to you?" Ryouga answered.

"Her? Nothing. It's the girl who is chasing after her that worries me.
I don't know if you know this, but your friend is in danger."

"You mean Shampoo, right?" Ryouga asked. "We certainly know about her."

"Yes. Shampoo. She won't give up, you realise that? You're going to
have to do something about her." Shin said.

"And what do you suggest? Kill her?" Ukyou asked.

"And what do you suggest? Let your friend die? If she had been away
from her village when she gave the kiss, we could have used a herbal
shampoo I have to remove her memories of losing, but she lost at the
tournament, which means that the whole village knows, and would deride
her when she got back claiming to not remember. If the whole village
did that, she'd restart her hunt even if she believed that the entire
village was lying to her. It's all about pride. Amazon pride. They can
be justifiably proud of their fighting ability, but it has started a
lot of fights, caused a lot of deaths over the years. There are no easy
options. Unless, of course, the girl being chased was a man before she
went to Jusenkyo."

"Why would that make a difference?" Ryouga asked, confused.

"You mean you don't know? If a girl defeats an Amazon, she is to be
chased to the ends of the Earth and killed. If a guy defeats an Amazon,
he is to be married to her, to strengthen the Amazon bloodline." Shin
explained.

"So, what if she is a man? Doesn't her being from Jusenkyo make her
neither, in a way?" Ukyou asked.

"Who knows? The laws never covered Jusenkyo curses. I don't know why,
the springs are only about a days walk from the village. Probably, they
would either say that it was whatever you were before you entered that
mattered, OR that it was whatever you were when you beat the Amazon. It
would be up to the elders of the village to decide." Shin said.

"Oh well, I guess Ranma just hides out in his male body for a while."
Ryouga said shrugging.

"Now, about the damage to my store...." Ukyou said, her eyes glinting.

"I said I'd pay! Of course, we'd have to get an independent assessment,
just to be fair."

"Well, Nabiki could do it." Ryouga suggested. Certainly, Nabiki would
stiff this guy, and he deserved some more payback.

"Are you crazy?" Shin asked. He pulled out a brochure from a pocket,
which was labelled 'A businessman's guide to Nerima.'. "Every new
business is given one of these when we arrive. I'll give you a quote.
'Unless you enjoy liquidation sales, or extortionistic interest rates,
be careful of your dealings with one Tendo Nabiki. P.S. Don't let her
see this!' " Shin put away the brochure and looked at Ryouga with a
raised eyebrow. "You don't think I'm going to let her assess the
damage, do you?"

"Worth a try." Ryouga said with a shrug.

"Anyway, if she's not acceptable, how about...." Ukyou began to haggle
with Shin on assessors, contractors, and the like.

***********************************************

Ryouga walked towards the room he and the Saotomes shared. At least, he
hoped he was walking towards it. He was in the house at least. Well, he
was in _a_ house, he hoped it was the right one, he'd been wrong
before.

He'd never known Ukyou could haggle like that. He'd never wanted to
know it. How could two people spend an hour arguing over which assessor
to be used? Didn't they have anything better to do? Eventually, Ryouga
had grown so bored that he decided to find his own way home. Besides,
Ranma might be in trouble with Shampoo and need his help.

Ryouga stood in front of a door. He shrugged, it looked like the right
one, so he opened it. Seeing the sleeping form of a panda, he smiled.
And people said he couldn't find his own butt with a map and precise
directions! Ha! Ryouga smiled as he walked into the room.

That smile slipped as he saw that Shampoo was cuddled up to a snoring
Ranma, a content smile on her face. She appeared to be sleeping as
well. Both were still clothed, the only reason Ryouga didn't
immediately leap to a certain conclusion. [Well.] he thought. [I guess
that's one way of getting her to stop killing you. Of course, you've
just traded one death for another. Akane's going to kill you in the
morning.]

Ryouga looked around. There wasn't really space to sleep here, not that
he would have got so close to a woman who had chased him and Ranma for
several months and followed them this far just to kill girl Ranma.
Besides, here was a place he _didn't_ want to be when Akane saw this
happy scene. She was the one who usually woke Ranma, Ryouga could bet
she would tomorrow as well. It was cosmically inevitable. She might
kill him as well, just for being there.

It was time to leave. He stealthily walked over to the wardrobe and
picked up his pack. He wasn't planning on getting lost, just finding
his way back to Ucchans, but it was best to plan ahead. Besides, if
Ukyou did let him stay there, he'd need the change of clothes he kept
in the bag for school tomorrow.

He snuck back to the door and took one last look at Shampoo and Ranma.
He shook his head. He was almost tempted to just stay up all night so
he could be here in the morning to see the fireworks. No. He needed his
sleep more than the entertainment. It seemed Ranma was in no immediate
danger. Well, actually, he was, but it looked like it wasn't from
Shampoo that he'd have to be running. Anyway, it seemed that Ranma
wouldn't need his help, so it was better to try and find a place to get
some rest. If he couldn't find Ukyou, he'd look for a place to pitch
his tent.

***********************************************

Lunchtime in Ryouga's homeroom. Ryouga-chan sighed as she walked over
to Ranma's desk to have lunch with him. She had never found Ucchans,
but she had camped out in the forest behind the school, so she actually
found the school when she tried in the morning. Ukyou hadn't been at
school today, she didn't know why.

"I'm surprised you're still alive." Ryouga-chan said to Ranma as they
sat down at their tables to eat. "I saw that cosy little scene in the
bedroom last night."

"Aw man, why didn't you wake me?" Ranma asked as he started to eat.
"Akane splashed me into a girl. You know, Shampoo is still trying to
kill me in girl form? Now she's also trying to marry me in my guy
form."

"I didn't wake you because I didn't think it was worth my life. I'd bet
Shampoo wouldn't have been too happy for me to break up that touching
little photo opportunity she had on you last night." Ryoko answered.
"I'm not crossing her, in guy or girl form."

Ranma was about to answer when the wall behind them bulged before
exploding inwards. "Male Ranma!" Shampoo cried as she stepped through,
wheeling a food trolley.

"Sh.. Shampoo?" Ranma stuttered. "What are you doing here?"

"Wife bring lunch." she said as she took the covering off the dish on
the trolley. There, on a bed of vegetables, was Ukyou-P, dead or
unconscious.

"Ukyou!" Ryouga-chan cried as she rushed over to the trolley, slammed
Shampoo out of the way, and clutched the piglet in her arms. "Ukyou,
speak to me!" she cried out to the pig, shaking it.

"Not girls lunch!" Shampoo cried, running at Ryouga-chan with a
bonbori. Ryouga-chan absently punched Shampoo back again as she looked
at Ukyou-P.

Ukyou-P bweed as she slowly opened her eyes to stare at a crying
Ryouga-chan. She had been on her way to school when an old woman, who
had been splashing water on the road for no apparent reason, had
splashed her, activating her curse. She had been about to run back to
her place when Shampoo had picked her up and knocked her out.

"You're alright!" Ryouga-chan sobbed as she hugged the piglet.

Shampoo walked up to Ryouga-chan and touched her chin. She leant
forward and kissed Ryouga-chan on the cheek.

[The kiss of death.] Ranma thought, shocked. [Now Ryouga'll be running
too.]

"Fine." Ryouga-chan snarled. "I've had enough of you, Shampoo. I was
willing to let you go before, but now you die. For Ranma, for Mousse,
for me and especially for Ukyou, you die."

"Wait a sec!" Ranma interjected. "The pig's ok, this isn't worth
getting riled up about." Ranma still didn't know what curse Ukyou had.
He had forgotten about the pig Ryouga had had with him once, so he
hadn't connected it to Ukyou.

"Butt out Ranma!" Ryouga-chan cried and backhanded Ranma out a window.
"Here." she said as she handed a woozy Ukyou-P to Akane, whispering as
she did so "It's Ukyou, get her some hot water."

Ranma scrambled back into the room to see that Shampoo, Akane, and
Ryouga-chan were gone. There was a broken window on the other side of
the room. "Damn." he muttered. Ryouga could take care of himself, but
Ranma didn't like the way this looked. Ryouga had looked ready to kill,
literally. He didn't want Ryouga to have that sort of thing on his
conscious, especially over a pig. Wait a minute.... Ryouga had called
that pig Ukyou. That must have been her cursed form! No wonder Ryouga
had been so angry.

Ranma bounded through the broken window. He had to get to Ryouga before
he did something to Shampoo that he regretted for the rest of his
life.

***********************************************

"Are you sure you're alright?" Ranma asked Ryouga-chan. He had found
her unconscious in a field, Shampoo nowhere in sight. When she had
woken up, she said that she couldn't remember what had happened, but
that she felt strangely refreshed.

"I tell you I'm fine, Ranma. Shampoo must have used some trick on me,
that's all. I don't know why she was after me though, you were the one
who defeated her." Ryouga-chan answered.

"What are you talking about?" Ranma asked. "You attacked her after she
almost killed your pig."

"Pig? I don't have a pig." Ryouga-chan said as a crowd, including Akane
and Ukyou found them. Luckily, Ukyou kept spare clothes, including
bindings for her chest, in her locker at school, so she was dressed as
a boy again.

"Are you alright?" Ukyou asked as she stepped up to Ryouga-chan.

"Well, of course I'm alright. Why do you ask?" Ryouga-chan asked.

"Because I'm your friend, Ryoko. Why wouldn't I care?" Ukyou asked,
confused.

"Friend? How can you be my friend? I've never seen you before!"
Ryouga-chan retorted angrily.

"What?" Ukyou cried.

"Ryoko, this is Ukyou. You've been friends for a while now." Akane
added.

"I tell you, I've never seen this guy before!" Ryouga-chan answered
angrily.

"But Ryoko, you're engaged to him. He's your fiance." a girl in the
crowd supplied.

"What?!?" Ryouga-chan screamed. "Engaged to a guy?!?"

"Enough of this. Shampoo must have done something to her." Ranma said
to Akane. "You bring Ukyou over after school, I'll take her home now so
that I can find out what else she can't remember."

Akane nodded, looking at Ukyou, who was looking sadly at Ryouga-chan.
As Ranma led Ryouga-chan away, who was still screaming about never
being engaged to Ukyou, Akane walked up to Ukyou and said "Don't worry.
He'll remember you. We just have to find out what happened."

Ukyou sighed and nodded. "I guess."

***********************************************

Ranma sighed. He was sitting opposite Ryouga in their room. "So the
only one you don't remember is Ukyou?"

"Look, what's so important about this guy that you expect me to
remember him?" Ryouga asked, irritably. "I think you guys are playing
some sort of trick on me."

"Ukyou's not a guy. She's a girl. You're her friend. I'd have to say
that you're her best friend." Ranma answered.

"Oh come on. I can tell a guy when I see one, and Ukyou's not a girl."

"I see." Ukyou said from the doorway where she and Akane where
standing.  "So, Ranma?"

"You're the only one he doesn't remember, Ukyou. I'm sorry." Ranma
said.

Ukyou walked up to Ryouga. "How could you forget me? After all we've
done together recently, how could you forget?"

Ryouga looked at Ukyou before turning to Ranma. "Nope, definitely a
guy." he said.

"What?!?" Ukyou screamed. "Why you....." she paused, a thoughtful look
on her face. "Akane, Ranma, could you leave for a while?"

"Uh... why?" Ranma asked.

"'Cause what I have to say to Ryouga is none of your business." Ukyou
replied.

"Fair enough." Ranma said as he and Akane left the room, closing the
door behind them.

"So you think I'm a guy?" Ukyou asked. "Tell me, Ryouga, how did we
meet?"

"You walked up to me at the field earlier. That's the first time I saw
you." Ryouga answered.

"So you don't remember peeking at me in the bath?" Ukyou asked.

"Peeking at you? Why would I peek on a guy?" Ryouga asked, face
contorting in disgust.

"I see we have a bit of a stepping stone to cross here." Ukyou said.
She looked down at her shirt and shrugged. She'd worn swimsuits more
revealing than the binding was, but Ryouga would believe that she was a
she if she showed him. Ah well, not as if he hadn't seen it before...
even if he couldn't remember at the moment. She unbuttoned her shirt.
"Still think I'm a guy?" She asked pointing to the small amount of
cleavage that wasn't covered by the bandage.

Ryouga flushed and looked away. "So you're not a guy. Still doesn't
mean I know you."

Ukyou sighed and rebuttoned her shirt. "Fine. I will make you remember
me, Ryouga. I'm not going to let you go that easy." She left the room.

***********************************************

Ukyou stepped downstairs and walked into the dining room, where Ranma,
Akane, and Nabiki were sitting.

"Anything?" Akane asked.

"No." Ukyou said with a sigh. "He just doesn't remember me."

"Not to worry." Dr Tofu said as he walked in. "Ranma brought Ryouga
over to me earlier. I recognised the Xi Fa Xiang Gao shiatsu technique
used. It took me a while, but I found this book, " he holds up a book,
" which details how to mix a cure for it. The shampoo Shampoo used was
formula 411. We need to make some formula 911 to bring back Ryouga's
memory."

Kasumi walked out of the kitchen and said "Oh! So Ryouga can be cured?"

Dr Tofu's glasses fogged up. He ripped up the book in his hand as he
began to stutter "Ka.... Kasumi! Wh... What are y... you doing here?"

"I live here." Kasumi replied.

"What are you doing?!?" Ukyou screamed to the oblivious doctor.

"He gets like that around Kasumi." Ranma explained.

"That idiot just tore up the book with the cure!" Ukyou screamed.

"He's a very good doctor, when Kasumi isn't around." Akane added.

"Arrrggghhh!" Ukyou cried as she saw the confetti the book had been
turned into.

***********************************************

Shin looked up as Shampoo entered his shop. <What are you doing here?
I thought you were off killing that girl?>

<I want to buy all the formula 911 you have. I don't want some people
getting their hands on it.> Shampoo replied.

<I don't keep much of that stuff around.> Shin admitted <More call for
the stuff that loses memories than the stuff that returns them. Still,
I'll sell you what I've got. What did you do that people would want it
for? I thought you were here to kill?>

<I don't kill needlessly.> Shampoo answered. <There was a girl, I think
her name was Ryoko, who was going absolutely berserk at me because I
sort of cooked her pet pig. The thing survived, but she was still angry
at me. She was attacking me with such anger that I had the choice of
using the shampoo or killing her. Knockout wouldn't have worked. I
chose the shampoo. So I removed all memories of the pig, she called it
Ukyou, from her.>

Shin pulled out three bottles of formula 911 and placed them on the
counter.  <There you are, that's all I have in stock at the moment.>

Shampoo smiled and paid for them. <Thank you. Now maybe I'll get that
Akane girl to forget male Ranma. Then I can get him to come back to the
village with me without him having to worry about that jealous girl
chasing him.>

Shin smiled and waved as Shampoo left. As soon as she was gone, he
rushed into the backroom where he created his potions and whipped a
book off a shelf. He flipped it to a page and quickly read the
ingredients on how to make formula 911 shampoo. After all, he had been
true to his word and sold her all the 911 shampoo he had in stock. She
had said nothing about him making more.

Shin nodded to himself as he read the recipe, which was in one of the
secret codes his master had taught him. Good. This wouldn't take long
at all to create.

***********************************************

Ranma, Akane, Ryouga, Nabiki and Kasumi were watching Ukyou,  who was
about to walk out the front door.

"Where are you going?" Nabiki asked Ukyou.

"I'm going to China, to get some formula 911." Ukyou answered.

"I see I need to advertise." Shin said from the doorway. Everyone
turned to him as he waved a bottle with the numbers 911 on it at them.
"I am a Chinese herbalist after all. Why go over there when you can
just come to me?"

"You? You'd help Ryouga?" Ukyou asked dubiously. "Why? And how do I
know that's really formula 911, and not something horrible?"

"Revenge comes before helping others, but business comes before
revenge." Shin said. Nabiki nodded in the background about the business
part. "I'm not giving it to you, I'm selling it." Shin explained. "You
have my word that it is the genuine article, my business would be
ruined if I sold fake cures.  And as to the question of my revenge on
Ryouga....... what's the point in trying to beat up a man with a
modified memory? He should be whole, so that I can ground him more with
impunity. Besides, his loss effects you, and I owe you a debt for your
store, a debt that cannot just be paid in money."

"So..." Nabiki said in a honey-filled voice. "How much are you selling
it for?  I'm sure we could make a deal....."

Shin looked into Nabiki's eyes, and felt like a rabbit caught in the
eyes of an eagle. He nervously turned back to Ukyou and said "I'll give
it to you for.... let's say 10 percent off what I give you to pay for
those damages."

Ukyou sighed. "Alright."

"Now I'm sure we can make a better deal than that." Nabiki said.

"I said alright!" Ukyou shouted. "I'll take it! Is it easy to use?"

Shin shook his head. "No. You need to know some shiatsu so as to apply
pressure to the right spots as you work in the shampoo. I can do it."

"I'm not letting you near me." Ryouga replied.

Shin shrugged. "Fine. Do any of you know any shiatsu?"

"No, not really." Ukyou said with a sigh.

"Oh my. Dr Tofu knows all about it. Why don't I go call him?" Kasumi
asked.

Ukyou and Nabiki stared at each other for a moment. "No, that's
alright." Ukyou said. "I'll call him." She walked over to Nabiki and
whispered "I'll give you a free okonomiyaki lunch if you can keep her
away from Dr Tofu."

"One lunch?" Nabiki whispered back. "I think it's worth more than that
to save a good friend like Ryouga. A weeks worth of free okonomiyaki,
both lunch and dinner. To be spread out over a months time."

"Two days, lunch and dinner." Ukyou whispered.

"Four days, three of which are lunch and dinner, the fourth being
dinner for the whole family, including Ryouga and the Saotomes."

"Done." Ukyou whispered with a sigh. Still, between Shin and Nabiki, it
was still definitely cheaper and quicker than going to China.

Ryouga watched in fascination as this strange transvestite girl went to
such lengths to cure him. She had been willing to go to China to get
some of this 'formula 911', she had paid not once but twice to get him
some when she realised she didn't have to go to China. Why was she
being so nice for him? Surely she couldn't be a stranger, no-one would
go to these lengths if they didn't know him. Ryouga was beginning to
wish he remembered her.

***********************************************

Ryouga stared at Ukyou in horror. He had been so cruel to her while he
didn't remember her. She'd never speak to him again.

"There you go." Dr Tofu said as he wiped his hands on a towel. "There's
still plenty of shampoo left in this bottle, Ukyou. Do you want it
back?"

Ukyou shook her head no. "You keep it, Doctor. That way, the next time
Shampoo or someone else tries this, we won't have to worry."

Dr Tofu nodded as he pocketed the bottle of 911 formula shampoo. He
looked around at the others. Ranma and Akane were standing in the
background, looking between Ukyou and Ryouga. No-one else was there.
Nabiki had taken Kasumi out to buy some soy sauce. It was a mystery
where the three litres Kasumi thought she had stocked had disappeared
to, but Nabiki was sure they'd turn up eventually. Unless Akane was
cooking, no need to add oil to a burning fire.

"Well anyway, time for me to get going." Dr Tofu said into the
silence.  "Ranma, Akane, why don't you show me to the door?"

"But it's just over...." Ranma began before Akane grabbed him and
dragged him out of the room, with Dr Tofu following them.

Ukyou looked at Ryouga. Once everyone else had left the room, she said
"So. Remember me now?"

Ryouga looked depressed. "I'm so sorry, Ukyou. Treating you like you
were a stranger, calling you a guy, screaming about being engaged.  I
understand if you never want to see me again."

"You really can be an idiot at times." Ukyou said. "Do you think I went
to all that effort to get you to remember me just so I could walk off
and never talk to you again?"

"Well, no, but..."

"But nothing." Ukyou said. She walked over to Ryouga and sat down next
to him, putting an arm around his shoulder. "When are you going to get
it into your head that you're special to me? I like.... aw, damn it all
to hell.  Now's as good a time as any to admit to it. I love you,
Ryouga. I love you too much to ever let you go this easily."

"Wh....wha... what?" Ryouga stuttered.

Ukyou sighed in exasperation. "I said I love you. Is that so hard to
understand?"

"Bu...bu...but..." Ryouga said eloquently.

"Yes?" Ukyou asked.

"B...but what about m..m...my c...cu...curse?" Ryouga managed.

"Do you really think that's going to worry me? I'm cursed myself. I've
lived most of my life as a guy. I love you for you, not for the
interesting party trick you can do with cold water."

"I..I." Ryouga sighed. He just couldn't say anything right. He had to
do something. He leaned towards Ukyou. She leaned back. Slowly, they
kissed.

After they broke from the kiss, Ryouga tried to speak again. "I.. I...
lo.. love y...you too." Ryouga sighed in relief. He had said it. He
looked into Ukyou's eyes, and smiled. "D...do you w...wa..want to
m..make our f...fake engagement r...ra..real?"

"I'll think about it." Ukyou said. Seeing the forlorn look in Ryouga's
eyes, she smiled and added "I was only joking. Yes, I do."

***********************************************

Shin waited in the Tendo's kitchen while Dr Tofu applied the shampoo.
He found himself getting annoyed just being in the same room as Ryouga,
so he excused himself to here until he found out if the shampoo
worked.

Shin stared around. Whoever used this kitchen must either _not_ use it,
or else they were great at cleaning. The place was spotless. Being in a
kitchen made him remember that he hadn't eaten since breakfast. He
looked around. [Surely they wouldn't mind if I had a cookie or
something?] he thought. [Well, if they complain, I'll just pay for it.]

Mind made up, Shin searched for something to eat. He was about to go
rooting through the cupboards when he saw a tin on top of the fridge.
He reached up and pulled the tin down. It was a biscuit tin. Attached
to it was a note : 'Akane's Cooking!!!!!' If Shin had been a more
observant man, he might have wondered why those two words were written
in capitals and why there were five exclamation marks after it. He just
shrugged and figured that this Akane girl must be such a good cook that
five exclamation points indicated the excitement of eating her food.

Shin opened the tin and pulled out a cookie. It looked delicious. He
smelled it. It smelt great. He bit into it. Make that, he tried to bite
into it. A puzzled look shot over his face as he tried to bite a chunk
of the cookie off with all the might his teeth could muster. Nothing.
Shin took the cookie out of his mouth and stared at it. Not a mark on
it. [This is amazing!] he thought.

He placed the tin back up on the fridge and took the biscuit he had
over to the bench. He pulled the biggest, sharpest knife he could find
out of a drawer and started to saw at the cookie. Five minutes later,
he was drenched in sweat, and the cookie was covered in metal shavings
from the knife. The cookie itself wasn't even scratched.

He looked around before walking out into the garden. There was one more
experiment to try, and best if he try it outside. He placed the cookie
on an ornamental rock near the pond and pulled out a small vial from
his most re-enforced and most padded pouch. Carefully, he opened the
bottle and let one drop of the liquid it held to fall onto the biscuit.
He resealed the bottle, making sure of the seal, then returned it to
it's special pouch.  Then he looked down at the cookie. The drop of
liquid was sitting on top of the cookie, doing nothing.

Shin shook his head. [Incredible.] he thought. He reached out and
slowly tilted the biscuit so that the drop of liquid trickled off onto
the rock. With a hissing sizzle, the liquid ate right through the rock,
quickly dropping out of sight. [Simply amazing.]

He made sure all the concentrated acid was off the cookie before he
picked it up. [I can't believe it. Akane must be a chemical genius to
create this 'cookie'. What is it made out of? I must ask her.]

His hunger forgotten, he pocketed the cookie and walked back into the
kitchen, to wait for the others to finish.

***********************************************

"Don't you think we should be seeing how Ryouga is?" Ranma asked as
they waved Dr Tofu off.

"No, I don't." Akane answered. [He can be so blind at times.] she
thought.  "Come on, you can help me get some food from the kitchen to
help celebrate."

"Kitchen?" Ranma asked, knowing that there was something about the
kitchen he should remember. "Oh yeah, that's where Shin went to. I told
him if he was hungry just to grab something, but I don't think he heard
me."

"What? I hope he didn't take any of that cake I made yesterday. He can
have some of my cookies, they're three days old, I think they've gone
stale or something. But he'd better not have touched my cake." Akane
said as the two reached the kitchen by a roundabout route to ensure
they didn't intrude on Ukyou and Ryouga.

They entered the kitchen to see Shin, leaning against the counter,
about to take a bite out of a piece of cake.

Ranma's eyes widened. "No!" he shouted, trying to cross the room and
knock the piece of Akane's cake out of his hand before Shin could eat
it. "Don't eat that! You'll die!"

Too late. Shin bit down on the food. He swallowed that piece when Ranma
hit his hand, knocking the cake out of his hand. "What did you do that
for?" he asked.

Ranma blinked. Then, before he could comment on Shin being upright
after eating Akane's cooking, Akane malleted him to the floor.

"Baka." she said to the prone Ranma. Then she looked up at Shin.  "And
you! What are you doing eating that? I was saving that for desert
tonight!"

"I'm sorry." Shin said. "It was incredible. So were those 'cookies'.
Are you Akane? You have a great future if you can create things like
these."

Akane blinked. [He liked it? No, he loved it! Ha, I knew Ranma was over
acting when he tried my food.] "Well, I guess....."

"Do you have the formula for this 'cake'? And those 'cookies'? I'd be
grateful if you could lend me them." Shin added.

"Well, sure. I guess I can get the recipes. They're in my room. Back in
a minute." Akane said. She never thought she was good enough that
anyone would want her recipes. They were just copied out of cookbooks
anyway. She left for her room, wondering what she had done right this
time. Oh well, she could just ask the rest of the family when she gave
them their pieces of cake tonight!

Ranma slowly stood. He looked at Shin in amazement. There he was,
calmly leaning up against the counter, after eating Akane's food.
"You've got to tell me how you ate her food and you're still standing!
Universal antidote? Palmed the food? Did she actually cook something
good? No, scratch that last one."

"My entire left side is numb." Shin responded calmly.

Ranma had a closer look at Shin. He could see that Shin was leaning
against the counter because he would have fallen over if he hadn't.
"Even so, I am impressed." Ranma admitted.

"I've spent years building up my poison resistance. Yet she still made
something that half-paralysed me! And I think I'm going to be sick as
well! This is great! How did she do it? Is she an amateur chemist?"
Shin enthused.

"Chemist? Nah, she's just a bad cook." Ranma answered.

Shin shook his head. [The fool. He doesn't realise just how hard it is
to make stuff like Akane has. If she's not doing it deliberately, she
must be a savant or something. Her subconscious must be getting her to
create these incredible things. Wow, my right leg is going numb too. I
don't think I've had a poison in years that could do this to me. Just
incredible.]

"I don't suppose you could get me to a chair before I collapse?" Shin
asked.

***********************************************

A man stood outside Po Shins Herbarium. He was young, about sixteen or
seventeen, and he had long black hair that flowed down his shoulders.
His figure was slightly hidden by a long voluminous robe-like white
shirt which had decorative designs on it. Beneath the shirt he wore
black pants. For some reason, even though he had a pair of thick
glasses, he wasn't using them.  Instead they hung on his head, just
above his eyes. It was Mousse.

Mousse lowered his glasses over his eyes and stared around as the world
swam into focus. When he saw Po Shins, he looked thoughtful, before he
started talking to himself. "Po Shin. I remember a Po Shin. I saw him
twice at my village. He only came to our village once or twice a year
with his master, and I visited almost as irregularly. I know him. I
wonder if it's the same man."

Mousse made his decision and walked up to the entrance to Po-Shins. A
small bell rang as he opened the door to the shop. He stepped through
the store's entrance into a pungent world of herbs, spices, and strange
looking things that did only an herbalist knows what.

Shin stood behind the counter, packaging some herbs. He looked up as
the bell rang. "Hello, how can I.... I know you from somewhere, don't
I?"

Mousse, who had taken his glasses off again, bowed to a jar full of a
yellow liquid. "My name is Mousse. I am from Joketsozuku."

"Ah! Now I remember! You're that hidden weapons expert whose master
made you train outside the village."

Mousse shook his head in a no gesture. "He didn't make me. When I began
my training, he gave me the choice of training in the village, or
taking training trips with him to places out of the village. I had
friends in the village, but none so great that would make me stay at
the village to learn. An Amazon village is not the best place for a man
to try and learn how to fight."

Shin nodded in understanding. "So, what are you doing here? Amazon
convention on in town? You realise that Shampoo is already here?"

Mousse nodded. "That doesn't surprise me. The girl she is chasing after
is a friend. I tried to help her, and another good friend of mine
escape Shampoo by distracting her. It gave them time to get away, but I
was knocked out in the fight."

"Why was Shampoo after them?" Shin asked curiously.

"I stopped her from doing something foolish." Mousse replied simply.
"Unfortunately, she didn't take it well."

"Ah, the kiss of death." Shin said, nodding in understanding. "She is
good."

"I am better." Mousse said, with no hint of pride.

"Then why did you lose?" Shin asked.

"Because winning was not worth the price. If I had killed her, the
entire village would have hunted me down and killed me. If I had of
beaten her without killing her, she would have had to marry me. I did
not want to marry her, she was a good friend but I don't love her like
that."

"Enough standing around here talking!" Shin said as he walked out from
behind the counter. "Let's go get some food from Ucchans over there."

The two men exited the store. Shin hung a closed sign on the door
before locking it shut. "I really need to get an assistant." he said
with a sigh.  "That way I could get lunch and still have an open
store."

"If the person I seek is nearby, I will be needing a job." Mousse said
as the two began walking towards Ucchans restaurant.

"Really? Who are you looking for?" Shin asked.

"A person called Hibiki Ryouga." Mousse said. He saw Shin stop dead in
his tracks and asked , "You know her?"

"Her?" Shin asked. "Yes, you could say I know.... her."

***********************************************

Ryouga had decided to start helping Ukyou out with her business. He'd
never thought of it before, but it must be a pain washing up afterwards
when you could only use hot or warm water.

So it was that he was at Ucchans, trying to navigate his way through
through the horrible maze of tables. Ukyou rolled her eyes as she saw
Ryouga look around, confused, for the fifth time since he had taken the
order. "That table, Ryouga!" she shouted pointing to one of about five
tables in the place. She sighed as he finally made it to the right
table and delivered the food. This just wouldn't do. He had been sweet
to offer to help, and she honestly was sick of rinsing everything she
used in hot water, but he was hopeless as a waiter. Maybe they could
work out some way to get him to the right table quickly. It looked like
until they did, he'd better stick to helping her get the place ready in
the morning and getting it clean at night. Maybe she could teach him
how to cook okonomiyaki.

"Hi there." Shin said to Ukyou as he sat down at one the counter
stools. Mousse sat down next to him. "Those contractors did a good job
fixing this place." Shin noted as he looked around. "Everything
repaired in two days. Impressive. I'll have to remember them for next
time."

"There better not be a next time here." Ukyou warned. She didn't really
dislike Shin, she just thought that his reason for attacking Ryouga
wasn't very good. So, when he wrecked her store doing it, she had been
not very happy with him. But, he had, true to his word, payed for
damages. And he had offered her the shampoo she had needed to help
Ryouga, a man he disliked. So, she allowed him into her store. "So,
who's your friend?" she asked.

"Ukyou, " Shin said (he had finally realised that Ukyou dressed up as a
boy sometimes, but was a girl), " this is Mousse."

"Hello there." Mousse said easily.

"Mousse? Wait a second.... you mean Mousse as in friend of Ryouga's
Mousse?" Ukyou asked.

"So you do know her?" Mousse asked.

"Her?" Ukyou asked. Everyone who thought Ryouga was a girl called her
Ryoko. What was with this guy?

"Mousse?" Ryouga asked incredulously as he finally found his way back
to the counter.

Mousse put on his glasses and stared at Ryouga. "You look like someone
I know. Who are you?"

"It's me, Ryouga!" Ryouga cried. This was great, Mousse was alive!

"Oh, I see. That guy is half-blind so let's have a guy pretend to be
Ryouga, eh? I'm not falling for that. Ryouga was a girl." Mousse said
angrily.

"What?" Ryouga said. Then he thought about it. He groaned. Mousse had
never seen him in his male form. He must've thought that he had always
been a girl. Thinking about it, he realised that he had never told
Mousse he had been cursed, not even after Mousse had fell into Jusenkyo
himself.

"Come with me." Ryouga said as he dragged Mousse to the backroom.

"Wow. He didn't even get lost. Ryouga must be preoccupied." Shin
noted.

"Shhh. Mind your own business." Ukyou replied.

***********************************************

Ryouga found Ukyou's bathroom. Like Shin said, he was too preoccupied
to get lost.

"Let go of me, would you?" Mousse asked.

"Put your glasses on Mousse." Ryouga said.

Mousse sighed and did so.

Ryouga turned on the water and splashed himself, changing himself to
his girl side. "See? I'm sorry I never told you. With the excitement of
the village, and worrying about Ranma afterwards, I sort of forgot to
tell you."

"Forgot?" Mousse asked in a quiet voice.

"Well, yes." Ryouga replied.

"How could you forget to tell me something like this?!?" Mousse
shouted.

"Well, because it was sorta embarrassing. It's not something you like
to admit to. Then, after a while, I actually did forget." Ryouga-chan
admitted.

"Oh, this is just rich." Mousse said as he began to laugh. "This is
just unbelievable. I was falling in love with a guy! Bwahahahaha!"

"Love?" Ryouga-chan said in a sinking voice.

"Oh, don't worry. Seeing someone you care for turn into a man in front
of your eyes can be a real turn off." Mousse added. "So. A guy, eh?"

"'Fraid so." Ryouga-chan answered.

"What's it like? You have any trouble with guys?" Mousse asked as he
dried his eyes.

"More than I want to admit. Still, I did get engaged to someone
recently."

"Really? A man or a woman?" Mousse asked.

"A girl!" Ryouga-chan shouted. "Well, she does dress as a guy for
school." he admitted.

Mousse couldn't help it. He started laughing again.

***********************************************

"So, you going to be ok?" Ryouga, who had changed back, asked Mousse as
they descended the stairs.

"I'll survive. I guess I have always been hopeless at love. At least
going away from my village on trips let me realise how hopeless my
thing for Shampoo was. I guess with you, it was more of an infatuation
than love. You were *ahem* cute, when I could see you. You were strong.
You were a skilled fighter. You didn't look down on me because I was a
man, unlike many of the women in my village. You just tried to be my
friend. I guess I was a fool to hope for anything more." Mousse
smiled.

"I thought it was my job to be depressing." Ryouga said.

"You don't seem to be too depressed." Mousse noted.

"No. I guess life has been good recently. I'm glad you're alive,
Mousse.  I was really worried about you."

***********************************************

Mousse and Ryouga sat down at the counter next to Shin. After ordering
food for both of them from Ukyou, Ryouga turned to Mousse and said "So,
what are you going to do now?"

"I really don't know. Chances are I've been exiled from the village for
interfering in the kiss of death. I could always start up a magic show,
I was always good at hiding things up my sleeves." Mousse answered.

"If you want to work at my place for a while, you can." Shin said.
"While you make up your mind on what to do. Maybe you should see
Shampoo. She hangs around my store a fair bit. I think she's lonely,
wants to see familiar faces."

"We didn't exactly part on the best terms." Mousse said. "She knocked
me unconscious, stamped on me a few times for good measure, then ran
off to chase Ranma." He paused, looked at Ryouga and said "What about
Ranma? Is she...."

"Ranma's a guy as well." Ryouga admitted.

"Does Shampoo know yet?" Mousse asked curiously.

"No, not by this morning she hadn't." Ryouga said.

"She thinks that male Ranma and female Ranma are two different people."
Ukyou explained as she walked back from serving another customer.  "She
was defeated by Ranma as a guy too, so she both wants to kill him and
marry him."

Mousse shook his head. "Poor Shampoo. She's so lonely, sometimes. Her
position as best fighter of her generation has made her a bit of an
outcast.  The others are jealous of her. No man can beat her, until
Ranma did, apparently. I think she's probably ecstatic to have a guy to
love now."

***********************************************

Nabiki walked into Shin's shop. She'd been hearing things about this
place since it opened up, mainly about its questionable clientele
(Kodachi was a regular), but she hadn't visited until now. As she
approached the counter, Shin walked out of the back room.

"Hello there, how can I help you?" he said politely.

"From what I've heard, its _me_ that _you_ want to help you." Nabiki
responded. "I'm Tendo Nabiki, remember? You said on the grapevine that
you wanted to meet me?"

Shin smiled. "Ahh yes, thought I recognised you. I hear you're the one
to go to for certain arrangements. It's in regards to Akane......."

Nabiki took his hesitation as a sign to speak. "Let me guess, you want
pictures of her, right?" She pulled out a set of photos from a pocket
and plopped them onto the counter. They were the standard photos of
Akane working out. "5000 yen for a set of 5." she said.

"What?" Shin asked confused. "Why would I want to pay for such
pictures? I could just get a camera and take my own. What sort of idiot
would pay for these?"

"I'll take them." Kunou said from over Nabiki's shoulder.

"Gyaah!" Nabiki said, holding a hand to her chest. She turned to him
and said "Don't do that!" before returning to her normal unfazed self.
"Where did you come from?"

"Never mind that, Tendo Nabiki." Kunou said as he payed for his photos
and grabbed them off the counter. "Well, I must be off to visit my just
retribution upon that villain Saotome. Farewell." With that, Kunou left
the building.

"Well anyway," Shin began as Kunou left, "back to what I wanted."

Nabiki turned back to Shin and said "Yes, what do you want with Akane?
A date? I don't think you've got enough money for that."

Shin shook his head. [What does this girl think I am, some sort of
hentai.  Must be a Japanese thing.] "No, I don't want a date with her."
He reached beneath the counter and pulled out a small video camera.
"You see, what I want is...."

Mousse was in the backroom unpacking some herbs. For the moment, at
least, he had accepted Shin's job offer. Whether he stayed in the long
run was another question. He turned his head to the door to the main
area when he heard Nabiki shout "You're sick!"

Mousse walked out to the front room to see Nabiki walking out of the
store, clutching a video camera in one hand, a wad of bills in the
other. As she walked off, stuffing the money into her wallet, she
muttered to himself. "He has to be the sickest guy I've ever met. But
at least he pays well for his perversions."

Mousse watched her stalk off before he turned to Shin. He couldn't
contain his curiosity, so he asked "Just what did you pay her to do?"

Shin shrugged his shoulders. "Akane can do some incredible things with
items found in a kitchen. When I tried to follow the recipe she gave
me, I made a bland but quite serviceable cake. When she used the same
recipe, she created something that even I, with all my years of poison
resistance training, fell sick from. A batch of her cookies were harder
than reinforced titanium. She has an incredible future as a chemist, if
she would but see it. Until she realises her destiny, however, I'm
paying Nabiki to video tape her every time she cooks. I've got to see
exactly what she does, which ingredients she uses.  You never know what
she might create next, and if someone doesn't record exactly how she
did it, we might lose some cure to cancer or something."

"Uh-huh." Mousse replied doubtfully. "I've heard about Akane's cooking.
The only time the word 'cure' could be used to describe it would be if
you were looking for a cure to life."

"Ah, you see, there's advantage in that as well. I don't really approve
of poisons, but you never know when you might need one. You can't
always have poison handy, but if you can make it out of household
ingredients....."

Mousse sighed. "You are seeking dangerous knowledge, my friend. I hope
it does not destroy you."

Shin smiled. Seeing Mousse head to the front door, he asked "Where are
you off to?"

"I don't know." Mousse answered truthfully. "I just feel the need to
walk the streets for a while. Goodbye."

***********************************************

Shampoo ran from the dojo, crying. All a lie. It had been all a lie.
Her man, her saviour from the loneliness of single life, a man to love,
a man to love her was no man at all.

Ranma had just told Shampoo about his curse, claiming that his girl
side was his real side so that she would stop trying to kill Akane as
an 'obstacle' to their marriage. Shampoo had almost attacked girl
Ranma, but had left at the last moment, saying that they would never
meet again.

Shampoo leaned against a wall and sobbed. Now, she would return to her
village in disgrace. When would she find love, like so many of her
friends had? A lot of her friends had already been beaten or allowed
themselves to be beaten, allowing themselves to marry. Shampoo's pride
could not take throwing a match. She could not lose deliberately, not
even for love. The only man who had ever been good enough to beat her
had turned out to be a girl, using her male side as a disguise. Shin
had actually been right, the bastard. Ranma had gone to Jusenkyo.

"Shampoo? What's wrong?" a voice asked from behind her.

Shampoo froze. <Mousse? What are you doing here?> she asked without
turning around.

Mousse sighed and walked up to Shampoo. <Visiting friends. You?>

Shampoo sighed. She couldn't be seen to be weak. Especially not by a
village male. She surreptitiously wiped her eyes dry before turning to
look at her childhood friend. <I'm going home.>

<Ranma told you about the curse?> Mousse asked.

<How did you know she was cursed?> Shampoo asked.

[She?] Mousse thought. [Why would Ranma claim to be a girl?  That could
have been suicide. Oh well, his choice.] He spoke up.  <I travelled
with them for over a month. Not that I found out then, Ryouga told me
about the curses after I got here.>

<Ryouga?>

<The other girl who was with Ranma at the village.> Mousse explained.

<I thought her name was Ryoko. Oh well.>

<So what do you think they'll do to you?> Mousse asked. He could tell
just by looking at her that she hadn't killed Ranma.

<I don't know. Do you want to come back with me?> Shampoo asked, not
knowing why she did.

<I.... I cannot. I can never go back. I think I shall make my home
here.  But if you ever choose to leave the village, if they ever let
you leave the village, then know that I am here for you. I am and
always will be your friend, Shampoo. Even when I fought you at the
docks, I was being your friend. Never forget that.> Mousse smiled at
her.

Shampoo smiled back. <Living outside the village did you good, Mousse.
I think I actually like you more with a backbone. Perhaps one day I
will return. It will all depend on my reception on arriving home.>

<You could always lie.> Mousse pointed out.

<To Great-Grandmother? Come now, she would see through me in a moment.
Better to hold my head high and tell the truth.>

<I really did love you, you know. Perhaps I still do. I just don't know
anymore. I just don't know what love is.>

Shampoo sighed. <And I was falling in love with Ranma.> She looked back
in the direction of the dojo before continuing. <I just couldn't hurt
her, you know? Not even after she lied to me. I guess that makes me
weak.>

Mousse shook his head. <No, Shampoo. It makes you strong.  Stronger
than you think. Stronger than you will ever know. I know this will not
make you feel better, but Ranma never meant to hurt you.>

Shampoo bowed. <Goodbye Mousse. Maybe, in time, we will meet again. I
hope we leave each other as friends?>

Mousse bowed back to her <We will always be friends. Farewell, Shampoo.
May you find love, and a man you can respect.>

<I thought I had. He turned out to be a lie. I think I can respect you,
though. Don't ever come back to the village, Mousse. When they find out
you delayed me at the port, you will be exiled. You know that. Find
your dreams here, or elsewhere, but please don't come back to the
village. Even if they let you back in, I think you would be unsuited to
it now.> Shampoo said.

<Be careful. Don't let the elders cow you when you face them.  After
all, are you not an Amazon?> Mousse said as she turned to go.

<I hope you find love too, Mousse. In the end, it seems to be the one
thing we never find though, is it? Farewell.> Shampoo walked off as
Mousse stared at her retreating back.

***********************************************

Shin's store was on fire. He didn't know how it had happened, but it
was definitely on fire.

"Noooo!" Shin screamed as he and Mousse came back from lunch to see
flames licking at the windows. They had decided to take it easy today
and both go to lunch at the same time. Apparently, that had been a
mistake.

Shin rushed into the store, frantic to save what he could. Once, he had
drunk a special potion, whose ingredients had included several things
such as a phoenix feather, salamander's tail, dragon's scale, essence
of fire elemental, and so on. The ingredients had taken a year of long
and dangerous searching to find. Once Shin had drunk the potion, he
received amazing resistance to fire. Normal fires just wouldn't harm
him, it took furnace room temperatures to burn him.  In return for this
gift, he developed a phobia to people with a Jusenkyo curse. At the
time, he had thought Jusenkyo's power to be a myth, so he hadn't been
concerned about having a weakness to it. So it was that because of his
nigh-immunity to flames, Shin was inside his store, his clothes
starting to catch fire, as he tried to save what he could.

Shin coughed, his eyes watering, before he put on his mask and goggles.
The mask was treated with special herbs that would allow him to breathe
in the smoke for a while without damage. He grabbed his more valuable
herbs and ran outside, dumping them next to Mousse, who was organising
a bucket brigade until the fire engines could arrive. The store had
been due to have sprinklers installed, but hadn't had them fitted yet.
Shin ran back inside to get more of his merchandise.

Ryouga and Ukyou ran out of Ucchans to look at Po Shins. If something
wasn't done soon, there would be a conflagration.  (Sorry, always
wanted to say that word.)

"We've got to help!" Ukyou shouted to Ryouga over the din the brigade
was making.

"He almost did the same to your store!" Ryouga pointed out.

"Yes, and he was sorry when he realised! I think that store is his
life, Ryouga. Do you really want to stand by and watch a man's life
destroyed?"

Ryouga sighed. When she put it like that, how could he refuse?  "Maybe
there is something we can do. Do you know where the water pipes are on
the street?"

Ukyou nodded.

"Show me the closest one to his shop, then you'd better get out of
here. It's about to get very wet."

***********************************************

Shin was a horrible sight to behold. His clothes had caught fire,
making him look like some sort of demon. His mask was smouldering, and
his goggles were starting to melt. He had to get out of here. He was
making his way to the door when a burst of water blew in from it. By
itself, this torrent of water might not have quenched the fire, but it
gave Shin an idea.

He rushed to the backroom where the herbs were stored and pulled out a
small barrel. He had almost forgotten he had this. He rushed back into
the main room and saw that the fires on the ground were out, but the
walls were still burning. He opened the barrel, threw it into the
water, and ran like crazy for the door.

***********************************************

Ryouga-chan nodded in satisfaction as the water from the broken water
main poured into Po Shins store. It was pouring everywhere else as
well, but that was besides the point. Ryouga had gotten the idea to
break down to the pipes from that skating match. After a couple of full
powered punches to the ground, he had managed to reach the water
pipes.

"Quack." Mouse-Duck said as he floated next to Ryouga-chan.

"Sorry Mousse. I forgot to warn you." Ryouga-chan apologised.

"Quack." Mousse-Duck quacked in a that's ok kind of way.

Both turned back to the burning store when the saw Shin run out, his
clothes little more than ashes, screaming "Get down! Get down!"

"Quack?" Mouse-Duck asked, just as Po Shins store exploded with foam.

Everyone within ten feet of the store found themselves covered in the
stuff. Still, it had almost instantly put out the fire by suffocating
it.

"Hah!" Shin screamed, raising his hands in victory. "Number 512! I knew
it'd come in handy one day! And people said keeping stuff that reacted
like that in water was dangerous!"

***********************************************

Nabiki knocked on the door of the hotel room Shin was staying in while
his store was fixed. Luckily for him, the damage had looked worse than
it was, and, most importantly, most of the stock had escaped damage.
Plus, he had fire insurance. Apparently it had been an electrical fault
that had started the fire.

Shin opened the door and smiled. "Come in! Come in! I was just watching
the video you sent me. Good work, very good."

Nabiki entered to see that, true to his word, a video image of Akane
beating a tentacle back into a pot was frozen on the tv. She noticed
that a large notepad was beside a chair. On the notebook was drawn
several large complex diagrams.

"What are those?" she asked as she pointed at the notepad.

"A conversion table for Akane's ingredients. Like many who wish to keep
their secrets, she uses a code for her cooking. It is a hard one to
crack. See, here plain flour means baking soda. But here, white wine
means both cooking oil and vinegar. I'm sure I'll crack her code sooner
or later." Shin answered.

Nabiki couldn't believe that this guy was that stupid. He actually
believed that Akane was deliberately cooking that badly. The funny
thing was, Akane thought Shin loved her cooking. She was right, just
not for the reasons she thought.

Shin had unfrozen the vcr. "Look! Look at that pie implode! It's just
amazing! How does she do it? I have to send this tape over to my master
in China, she'll want to see this. Perhaps she'll offer to apprentice
Akane to the Herbal Art."

"I don't think that's a driving aim of her life." Nabiki said dryly.
"My time is literally money, Shin. What was it you wanted?"

Shin turned to Nabiki, a serious look on his face. "You seem to know a
lot about things. I need you to tell me what Ryouga wants more than
anything else in the world."

***********************************************

Ryouga, Ukyou and Shin were in Ucchans. It was just after closing
time.

"You want to what?" Ryouga asked Shin incredulously.

"I want to help reveal your curse at school in a way that will not hurt
you." Shin repeated. "You saved my business, Ryouga. I admit, I do not
like you, but my business is my life. So, in essence, you have saved my
life. I do not take such a debt lightly. I asked Nabiki what I could do
for you to pay my debt. The first thing she suggested, curing you, is
beyond me. I cannot go near Jusenkyo, not if you lot are any
indication. Any answers to a cure would lie there. The second idea
Nabiki had, however, I can help you with. She told me that you
masquerade as a girl at school, trapped by an unfortunate set of
events. She told me you lived in fear of your curse being found out,
which surely it will one day. She said that Ranma's curse had been
accidently revealed recently, so the school knows such curses exist
now."

Shin looked at Ukyou, then back to Ryouga. "I have a plan. If I pretend
to curse you with a male shape, 'Ryoko', you don't lose any.... well,
not many friends. Then you can walk around school without fear of hot
water anymore."

"You've got to be kidding. Trust you?" Ryouga snorted.

"I swear on my honour I shall help you in this. My plan will work.  You
must realise what you lose if your friends find out you've been lying
to them all this time. Accept my help, I swear you won't regret it. At
least I hope you won't."

"He's right, you know." Ukyou said to Ryouga. "People are starting to
wonder why you avoid hot water like you do. With the showers, Akane
told me the girls just think your shy. With other hot water situations,
like home ec and chemistry, people are getting suspicious. If you don't
pretend to get a guy curse, someone might take it into their head to
pour hot water on you in front of everyone just to prove once and for
all whether you have a curse."

"Alright." Ryouga said with a sigh. "I don't like trusting you, Shin.
But I will. What do we do?"

"I need the help of your friends. And we need four or five days to get
ready." Shin answered. "Get Ranma, Akane and Nabiki together and meet
me at my store tomorrow. That's when I re-open it. We need to work on a
script."

"Why those three?" Ukyou asked, curious.

"Akane and Nabiki need to distract some people. Ranma I need because of
one thing. If you go to your male body, people are going to get
suspicious because some have, Nabiki told me, seen 'Ryouga' before. If,
however, Ranma turns up dressed as you just as you get cursed, in all
the confusion no-one is going to realise he isn't 'Ryouga' and they
will believe that you aren't 'Ryouga' after all, just 'male Ryoko'."
Shin answered.

"This won't work." Ryouga predicted.

"Possibly." Shin admitted. "But it probably will. All I have to do is
throw some herbs into some hot water to make a suitably magically
glowing water, and have Ranma there looking like you, and it should
work." Shin stood and walked to the door.  "And if it doesn't, " he
added, " you can always move to another school."

"That really helps my confidence in this plan." Ryouga said
sarcastically.

**********************************************

Shin looked in the mirror that was set up in the dojo. He was dressed
in flashy robes, a fake grey haired wig and beard hiding his features.
He turned to Ranma, who had his hair cut like Ryouga's. Not an easy
task to get an exact match of a haircut when you have eaten a dragon's
whisker, causing your hair to grow at a fantastic rate if it wasn't
capped with a dragon's hair braid. Luckily, Ranma had a girl side, and
girls were immune to the effects of a dragon's whisker. So they had
just splashed him, cut her hair, retied the braid into her hair so that
it wasn't visible, then splashed hot water on her. Then they had
dressed Ranma in typical Ryouga clothes, complete with bandanna and a
set of fake fangs.

"How do I look?" Shin asked.

"Pretty cheesy, Shin." Ranma said.

"That's Maxton to you, Ryouga." Shin said as he placed his hands on his
hips in a silly superhero pose.

"Yes?" Ryouga asked, having heard his name.

"Not you." Shin replied.

"Oh." Ryouga said. "You know, this is never going to work."

"Shut up. I put too much effort into thinking of this for it to not
work." Shin said.

***********************************************

Ukyou led Ryouga-chan out into the school grounds for lunch. It was
almost time for Shin's little plan. Everyone was nervous, especially
Ryouga. So many things could go wrong. If events happened like always
around here, then so many things _would_ go wrong. The greatest problem
was Shin himself. Could Ryouga trust him? The man _had_ tried to kill
him. And yet, he did seem to have a sense of honour. He had supplied
the shampoo needed to cure his memory, after all. He had sworn on his
honour that he would honestly help Ryouga reveal his curse in a way
that would ensure he wasn't hated. The plan was half lie, half truth,
wrapped up in silly little gestures to fool the unwary. It relied too
much on some unpredictable people, Shin chief amongst them. Something
would go wrong.

The group had done their best to occupy people who could interfere.
Akane had eventually been persuaded to distract Kunou by challenging
him to a match at the Kendo room. Mousse was taking care of Shin's
store, so he wouldn't be turning up. Nabiki had, for a price, agreed to
somehow distract Kodachi.

Ryouga-chan and Ukyou waited nervously near the centre of the school
grounds.  They were surrounded by the usual melee of lunchtime. Plenty
of witnesses.

Swirling grey smoke coalesced in front of Ryouga-chan and Ukyou. Events
ground to a halt in the school grounds as the students saw that
something strange was happening. The smoke slowly dissipated, revealing
a tall, grey bearded man dressed in flashy robes which were covered in
mysterious looking symbols. The man was holding a gnarled staff in his
left hand. In his right he held a small barrel.

The man, who was Shin in disguise, looked at Ryouga-chan before
speaking in a booming voice. "Ryoko. Hibiki Ryoko. Your destiny awaits
you Ryoko. I am Maxton, custodian of curses. It is I who keeps curses
and blessings in check.  Without me, the planet would spiral into
chaos."

Ryouga-chan replied in a monotonous voice, almost as if she was
reciting a memorised text. "What does that have to do with me, old man?
I have no curse."

Shin rolled his eyes slightly at Ryouga-chan's wooden performance.
"Therein lies the problem, young girl."(It had taken two days just to
get Ryouga to stop trying to kill him when he said that line.)"When you
and Ranma trained at Jusenkyo, only Ranma was cursed. That was not the
cosmic plan. That is not how it should be. Without a counter to Ranma's
curse, ill luck shall befall us all. And so I am here to give you a
gift. Very similar to Ranma's gift."

He placed his staff on the ground and used his now free left hand to
open the barrel. Steam wafted from inside. "This is water from the
springs of Kyusenkyo, cousin to the springs of Jusenkyo. Much like
Jusenkyo, people cursed with this water will change into whatever
drowned in the spring. The only difference is that it is hot water that
transforms a person into their cursed state. It is a perfect counter
for someone cursed at Jusenkyo, and now I give its gift to you."

Here was the tricky part, the part which Ryouga had gloomily predicted
would come undone. Shin had insisted that it had to go this way for it
to work though. As Ryouga-chan did some truly poor body acting by
pretending to be scared by backing up a couple of steps, Shin
approached her. He started to sweat profusely as he felt his Jusenkyo
phobia kick in.

As Shin got within dunking range, Ranma, disguised as Ryouga, stepped
out of the crowd and said(in his best Ryouga voice, which wasn't too
accurate)"Um..  Excuse me, could you tell me the...ah...Tendo Dojo? Oh!
Ryoko! Hey..... *ahem* sis."

Shin stretched his arms as far as they could go so his the main part of
his body stayed as far away from Ryouga's cursed form as possible. He
upended the barrel on Ryouga-chan as Ukyou deliberately started into a
dive too late to stop him.

Ryouga-chan let out a scream as the water, which was glowing a strange
green colour, hit her. Shin smiled to himself, thinking [Heh, I knew
that making the water extra hot would make Ryouga's scream more
realistic.]

The steam from the water, which was a deep green colour, obscured the
view of Ryouga's body. Shin took his cue to leave. "Enjoy this blessing
I have given you child." he said as he hurried away. "It is a gift I
have given you!" he shouted over his shoulder as he half-ran,
half-walked out of the school gates.

The school students surrounding this scene began to murmur to
themselves as the steam cleared away. Ranma, still(of course) dressed
as Ryouga stepped up to the steam bank. "Sis?" he asked. A constipated
expression, that might, if imagination was used, could be called a
shocked expression, covered his face.  "No!" Ranma shouted without any
true feeling. "I'll kill you for this!" he screamed as he ran out of
the gates, apparently in pursuit of .... Maxton.

"Ryoko?" Ukyou asked as the steam finally cleared enough for all to see
that 'Ryoko' was 'cursed' into a male form. "What did that man do to
you?"

Ryouga was sitting down, clutching his knees. He was remembering when
he had really been cursed, so there was a true sound of depression in
his voice when he answered "He cursed me, just like Ranma."

Ukyou held out a hand to Ryouga. "Come on. If that bastard was telling
the truth, cold water will change you back."

Ryouga took her hand and stood. Ukyou led him out of the crowd, which
was staring at him with a mixture of pity and compassion on their eyes.
As the two headed into the school building, they heard several
mutterings from the crowd.  'Poor girl.' 'Who was that guy anyway?'
'Even a tomboy like Ryoko didn't deserve that happening to her.' 'Boy,
she really looks like her brother in that form, doesn't she?' 'Hey,
she's kinda cute as a guy.'

***********************************************

That night at the Tendos, Ranma, Ryouga, Akane, Ukyou, Shin, Mousse and
Nabiki gathered in the dojo.

Mousse had struck up a conversation with Nabiki. Nabiki was surprised
to find that this quiet young man was very intelligent. He spoke fluent
Japanese despite little training in the language, he had learned a
difficult martial arts school, became a master in it in fact, and he
was apparently a practising stage magician as well, all before he had
reached the age of eighteen. The only problem was that he wasn't rich.
Handsome though, especially when he wasn't wearing those glasses.

Mousse, in return, was pleasantly surprised at the young woman he was
talking to. Intelligent, witty, with a dry sense of humour, she was a
good person to talk to. She was beautiful too, he realised on the few
occasions he had his glasses on. Still, physical beauty had always been
secondary to him. It was inner beauty that interested him. He found it
fascinating that a woman, such as her, could solve all their problems
without resorting to violence. From what he'd heard, she was a master
at it, too. Mousse could respect a fellow master, no matter what they
were a master in.

For some reason he felt like all his secrets were hers to take, but
what did it matter? He had no secret he was worried about people
finding out about.  Everyone here had already found out about his
curse. She did seem a little fixated on the subject of money, but there
wasn't too much wrong with that.  Everyone needed a hobby.

"So have you ever considering using your duck curse to your advantage?"
Nabiki asked him. "You know, spying on your opponents, scouting the
battlefield, camouflaging yourself by swimming in a pond. All that sort
of stuff. You could make a mint if you were willing."

Ranma glanced irritably at Akane. When they had cut his hair to make
him look like Ryouga, Akane had been the one to tie the dragon's braid
into his hair before it had grown too long. Akane had done a decent job
of tying the braid into the hair so that no-one could see it, but now
Ranma couldn't untie the thing so that his hair could grow back. Now
he'd have to swallow his pride and ask her to undo whatever torture
knot she had used to tie the braid.  [Probably her way of getting back
at me.] Ranma thought.

While Ranma swallowed his pride enough to get Akane to undo his braid,
Shin walked over to Ryouga, who was next to Ukyou. "So how does it feel
to no longer have to worry about your curse being found out?"

"All I've done is trade one lie for another." Ryouga answered. "All the
people at school still think I'm a girl. They just think that I can
turn into a guy who looks a lot like my _brother_ now."

Shin shrugged his shoulders. [I suppose I shouldn't have expected a
thank you.] he thought to himself. "Oh well, I did my best."

Ryouga struggled with himself for a moment before muttering "Thanks for
helping me out."

Shin shrugged again, this time smiling slightly. "We're even." he
stated simply.

Behind them, Ranma's hair began to writhe as Akane finally managed to
undo the dragon's hair braid. She waited a few moments, and then she
grabbed Ranma's hair, swiftly tying it back into the usual pigtail.

***********************************************

Ukyou and Ryouga were on the balcony of the Tendo residence, looking at
the stars. Ryouga sighed and placed an arm around Ukyou's shoulders.

"So, do you have to worry about being called a pervert at school for
being engaged to a half-guy?" Ryouga asked Ukyou.

"Not yet." Ukyou replied as she leaned into him. "I think everyone
thought that mentioning that sort of thing on the day you *ahem* got
cursed might be a little tacky, even for them. Considering the truth,
I'm going to find it funny if anyone does."

"Perhaps I should walk into the guys showers in my girl form and change
to a guy there. That'd freak them out a bit." Ryouga said.

"The girls would probably cheer you on. Heh, they'd probably give you a
camera to take with you. The guys would probably love you for it too."
Ukyou replied.

"Hentai." Ryouga said.

"Ha! There you go, the first person to call me a pervert since my poor
fiance got cursed with the unladylike proportions of a man is my own
fiance!" Ukyou cried.

"Do you think we should ever tell the school that I'm really a guy, and
you're really a girl?"

"Do you really see any point?" Ukyou shot back. "What does it matter if
we're seen as boy and girl, or girl and boy? We love each other, and
that's enough for me. Quit being such a girl about it, Ryouga." she
said, grinning.

"Hmph. No need to be a pig." he retorted with a grin.

"Pervert." she answered.

"I thought that was you?" Ryouga questioned.

"Oh yes. My mistake. Baka, then." Ukyou replied.

"That's better." Ryouga said with a humph.

A shout of pain split the air. The two looked down to see Akane chasing
Ranma, the obligatory mallet in her hand. Ukyou looked back at Ryouga
and said "Do you think those two will ever work it out?"

"More chance of me finding my way through a labyrinth." Ryouga
answered.

"Oh well. They'll work it out. One of these days." Ukyou said with a
sigh.

"Not likely." Ryouga retorted as he and Ukyou returned to staring at
the sky.

*****************************************************************************
*****************************************************************************

Well, sixty-five thousand words later, this thing is finished. Did I
mention that this was my first fanfic? I obviously have too much time
on my hands. This baby came from the realisation that most of the
alternate fics focus on Ranma and Akane. Shock! Horror! and all that,
but still, the other characters deserve a chance once in a while.

I gave Ryouga a girl curse because it gives him an excuse to calm down,
and to lose some of that shyness he has. Plus, it makes for great
torture.

Ukyou, I really, really like. That's why I cursed her. (Sounds of
author being bashed to a pulp here.) No really. She is my favourite
character by a long way. She's cute, a true friend, and (except for an
unfortunate incident or two towards the end of the series) she never
tries means too foul to catch Ranma. She never treats him cruelly like
the other three fiances/love interests do. (Yes! That includes Akane!
Her violent streak can get annoying after a while!) She honestly loves
Ranma, and this unrequited love makes her a very tragic figure (many
authors must agree with me, after all they KEEP KILLING HER OFF, the
bastards!) The way she keeps getting rejected for Akane in the fics can
really get depressing after a while.

And so, with Ukyou an angrier person because of a pig curse, and Ryouga
a slightly less angry person, slightly less shy guy/girl, I think they
make a great couple. Akari and Konatsu be damned.

Shin, my original creation (sounds of laughter from the audience at
calling this guy original) was there for several reasons. The first, to
be brutally honest, was as an ego trip. Not because he 'was me' or
Otaku stuff like that, but because an author loves to make up their own
characters. I think that a martial artist herbalist could fit into the
Ranmaverse relatively easily, after all, Chinese herbalists are
mentioned relatively frequently as far away sources of mystical
objects. Plus, he served a purpose in the story of curing Ryouga's
formula 411 problem. It would have been hard to cure Ryouga any other
way but 911, having Ukyou get him angry at her seemed wrong, it's not
her. Plus, their relationship as I wrote it was nowhere near as angry
as the Ranma-Akane one, so it wouldn't have made sorta sense like it
did in the true Ranmaverse.

Mousse.... well, Mousse deserved to not be such an idiot in someones
fic. To say that his thing with Shampoo in true Ranmaverse is getting
beyond unbelievably pathetic is an understatement. So I had him take
good old 'long training trips' away from the village so that he could
get over his thing with Shampoo.

Nabiki... she's not as bad as some portray her. Of course, she's also
worse than some have done her too. She's just one of those characters
that is hard to write right. I tried, if I failed, so be it.

Everyone else was, in my opinion, close enough to their true
characters. It really was a Ryouga and Ukyou fic though, so most of the
character development (what little there was) went into them.

So.... there you have it. An interesting experience, writing this. Very
cathartic. I might even write another one. Perhaps even a sequel to
this. Or I might write something in a different universe to Ranma.
Hmmm... I've been watching Giant Robo recently.... I wonder just how
much happier everyone would be if Giant Robo stepped on
Daisuku.....perhaps a story to be developed, although the idea
definitely isn't original.

Till next time.

"May you always be where you find yourself."