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After another day of dealing with her parents, Ranma was left feeling drained. Forcing a smile and pretending she was a boy for them got exhausting.
Sitting down on a swing, she let herself dangle absently, staring into space. Quietly hoping it would rain, so that she’d have an excuse for being in the form she preferred.
“I proved I was good enough of as a guy, didn’t I?” she muttered, staring into space.
She let out a quiet sigh.
“Why can’t I just be a girl now?”
After saying it she realised, with rising horror, that she wasn’t alone in the park. The sound of something being dropped drew her attention over her shoulder.
To see...
Him .
Of all the people to overhear what she’d said (and he’d definitely heard, going by the dumb look on his face) it just had to be him. Kuno Tatewaki.
What was he going to do now? What insult would he jump to first?
Her few days of having slipped over to the queerer corners of Tokyo had shown her there were a lot of insults available to him now.
She could see the gears slowly turning in that head of his. Or, single gear, considering it was Kuno.
What did that mean?
Kuno Tatewaki considered himself an educated man. One who had studied his arch rival, the oft deceptive Saotome Ranma, in depth. He had been sure he’d understood every aspect of him.
Only to be thrown such a curveball.
Yet, was this not a new weakness presenting itself?
Despite the fiery hearts of Akane and the pigtailed goddess, it was still clear a woman was less of a warrior than a man. In fact, Tatewaki was quite certain he had read that those who came upon the path of womanhood, in place of being born into it, were ever more delicate flowers. The standards of womanhood having been risen for them.
If he could nourish this bud of womanhood within his rival, then his victory in the battle for the hearts of his loves would be all but assured.
Nay.
If Saotome was a woman he would not even need to fight. He could simply stroll in, for neither Akane nor the pigtailed goddess would love Saotome as a woman.
He had to merely reach out his hand and...
“I can assist thee,” Tatewaki said.
Saotome merely stared at first. Clearly Tatewaki needed to further clarify his offer.
“I know of many skilled clothiers, and couldst afford to purchase thee a... I believe the term is ‘makeover’, if that be something thee wish for?” he offered.
It took a few moments for Ranma to process just what Kuno had said.
He’d just offered to buy her clothing and a makeover. She... well, she knew he had an ulterior motive. He always did with her. He’d obviously start—wait. She was in her birth form right now.
Why was he being nice to her?
And, did she even want to try to try while she was like this? To risk looking in the mirror and hating what she saw when she saw failure?
Then again. Free stuff.
She was a Saotome.
Plus, Konatsu looked plenty pretty. Maybe... maybe she could...
She nodded. “Ok... I mean, thank you.”
Tatewaki sat in the small clothing shop. Saotome was in the changing area. He’d had to throw a bit of money to get the women to accept Saotome as a client, but the Kuno family treasury could easily afford it.
And so he sat, hoping to see Saotome have a moment of joy upon ‘seeing a woman in the mirror’ or... however all of that worked. Whatever it was, it would then break the barrier holding a woman within. There would be no going back. He was certain of it.
“There we go,” one of the shop girls said from behind the back. “What do you think?”
“Oh!” came a soft voice.
One that sounded too soft to have been Saotome’s.
Confused, Tatewaki got up, walking over to the curtain and sliding it open. He was about to demand an explanation. Only to stop flat at what he saw.
There was a woman before him. She was tall. Elegant.
Beautiful.
He found his jaw hanging open, but couldn’t quite find the urge to close it.
“I’m... I look cute!” she said, voice getting a little louder.
A little more clearly Saotome’s voice.
Tatewaki suddenly realised he was the first man to ever see her beauty. The first to have his heart skip a beat at her smile.
And how it skipped, for it was such a smile. As beauteous as the pigtailed goddess or Akane’s.
Was he...
“Thanks, Kuno!” Saotome said.
That was definitely Saotome Ranma. That casual and overly familiar tone. Only the pigtailed goddess had matched that same wild behaviour. Which he’d found so irritating in a man, yet charming in a girl... and now Saotome Ranma was a girl.
How was he supposed to react to this sudden realisation?
Hmm...
Panic seemed reasonable.
So he shoved a wad of cash in the hands of the nearest store attendant, turned, and hurried out of the store.
Ranma blinked. Kuno had just... blushed? And then ran away?
It was certainly a nice confidence boost, to know she could do that to a boy still in her birth form.
Unfortunately, she knew reality was going to hit after this. Her parents couldn’t find out about this. She wasn’t going to lose these clothes, though. Kuno had paid for them, and she looked dang good in them. She just had to try to remember how to do her makeup like this.
It hurt to go home, hiding her new clothes. Hiding that she’d realised she could be a girl either way. Playing business as usual the next day at school didn’t appeal to her either.
She wasn’t quite sure how to bring things up with Akane. It was mulling over in her head as she walked to school, leaving her to be thrown a bit by seeing Kuno standing in front of the school. She braced, realising that maybe she’d been too genuine and too open yesterday.
Even if he’d blushed, he’d probably just want revenge for it now. To get Ranma back for ‘confusing’ him... something she’d dealt with plenty through the curse. Kuno had just been too much of a doofus to figure that out, but couldn’t deny it now.
The tall and broad upperclassman walked stiffly towards them, Akane bracing for a fight. Only, Kuno produced a scroll, shoving it in Ranma’s direction.
“A... Challenge!” he blurted, shoving it towards her again.
She took it, a bit confused.
“After class!” Kuno shouted, before turning around and marching off.
Ranma blinked, watching him leave once more. Then she opened the scroll. His handwriting was messier than usual, but still quite legible. Certainly better than her father’s.
The actual contents of the letter, though, were vague. Ranma honestly couldn’t tell if it was meant to be a date or a fight.
Then again, that was about par for the course with Kuno. The location was, at least, fairly far from the school. So she decided that she’d show up for a date either way. If that was what he wanted, she’d get some free food with a date. If that wasn’t what Kuno wanted, she’d be messing with them.
On second viewing she was easily as beautiful as the first time. That was what struck Tatewaki as he saw Ranma as a woman for the second time.
“So, I’m all dressed up. Where are ya takin’ me?” Ranma asked, grinning away.
“I... well...” Tatewaki stammered.
Normally he was better with women. He loudly proclaimed his feelings. It was easy, and natural. It was manly.
Yet, with Ranma, her womanhood was so new. Like a fresh bud, barely out of the soil. Not a flower in full bloom.
Or... something like that.
Either way, it left him certain he needed to protect her, and to be, himself, gentler. She was wild mare still skittish and unused to men who would woo her. And there was a beauty in that he felt must be protected.
“Dang, you seem real discombobulated, Kuno,” Ranma said, walking over and leaning in.
Oh, how she had that same irresistible tomboyish charm as the pigtailed girl. But just the slightest tinge of shyness underneath.
“I merely had to decide which dining establishment wouldst most fit your beauty, Saotome. For I, Kuno Tatewaki, star of the Tokyo kendo circuit, wish to aid ye in your first steps of womanhood as any proper gentleman should,” he declared.
... Feeling he’d managed about half the bravado he usually brought.
Ranma felt amazed as she sat in the high end sushi joint, the chef having read her as a cute young woman. Sure, she’d won Kuno over, but he was kind of an idiot. So the only other person she’d had to go on before this was herself, and she could admit she was a biased source.
But, nope. All the guys she was meeting on this date were looking at her and Kuno with envy in their eyes.
She really was cute like this. In her birth form.
What was surprising her even more, though, was that she was finding this shy and confused Tatewaki downright charming. She’d always liked flustered boys (it was a shame how Ryoga had always figured her out), but Kuno being genuinely sweet... she could get used to this.
Ranma ate barely enough sushi to fill up, feeling a bit nervous about giving in to her usual gluttony like this. She was sure there were already some questions about her womanhood with her flat chest and lack of hips and... all that.
Which meant they were soon walking back towards Nerima. Or, well, the train back to Nerima. (A fact tied to the other odd thing for that night, seeing Tatewaki on a subway train.)
As they walked, she decided to try pushing her luck, leaning against Kuno’s arm.
“So, are you madly in love with me now?” she teased, wanting to see that confused blush on his face once again.
Only to, instead, see a determined blush there. He nodded.
“I believe that I may be.”
She blinked, stopping in her tracks. “R-really? You ain’t just... confused? Or... upset about me bein’ technically a guy or any a that snot?”
“Technically a—Fair Ranma, I mayst be old fashioned, but I am not unaware of the miracles of modern medicine. I knoweth that there exists surgeries to overcome any deficit ye may feel in comparison to other girls. As such, there doth be no reason to consider you anything but a girl,” Tatewaki replied. “Least not now, that I hath seen thy maiden’s heart.”
Ranma felt her cheeks go flush. He was... he was really serious about this. He really—he actually thought she was pretty. He actually thought she was...
“You’re not gonna go all weirdo photo albums about me, right?” she asked.
She’d dealt with that enough in her other form. She didn’t want that doubled.
“I...” Kuno stammered.
She gave him a flat stare.
“Is that not romantics that makes a maiden’s heart flutter?” he asked.
“No,” Ranma replied.
“ Oh ,” Tatewaki mumbled. “You’re certain?”
“Quite.”
Tatewaki nodded slowly. “I must meditate upon this.”
He then began to wander off, scratching his chin.
She supposed that was about all the progress she could expect for one night.
Tatewaki wasn’t waiting for them the next morning. Ranma looked around, not seeing him anywhere.
Not that she was thrilled about him seeing her while she was presenting in boy mode for school. Still, she was so used to him being there for some reason or another, it was always a surprise not to see him.
“You seem disappointed,” Akane whispered, as they walked into the school proper.
“What?” she replied.
“That Kuno isn’t here... did he finally figure out who you are?” Akane whispered.
“...no,” Ranma whispered in reply. “He... I... it’s complicated.”
“You’ll have to tell me more after school,” Akane said as she grabbed her indoor shoes.
“And you didn’t think to show me what you look like?” Akane said with a pout as they walked home.
“I didn’t think you’d care,” Ranma muttered, the short redhead kicking a small pebble. “You don’t even like girls.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to see my best friend happy in her new dress,” Akane countered, hurrying ahead to give Ranma a large smile.
“Oh. I suppose that makes sense. I’m still new to this girl stuff,” Ranma replied, blushing slightly.
“Akane! Pigtailed girl!” a voice that needed no introduction proclaimed.
Both girls turned, Akane bracing for Kuno’s arrival while Ranma felt thrown by the appellation used.
“I must apologise, fair maidens, for I doth bring tidings of sorrow,” Tatewaki declared as he strolled over.
Dang was he tall when Ranma was like this. She knew, obviously, but it was still always a little disorienting. His face was so far away she could barely see it. She was just looking up his nose whenever she tried to look at him.
Akane, behind her, adopted a combat stance.
“I must inform both thee maidens that a new flower hath taken mine heart,” Tatewaki declared. “Hers is a distinctive womanhood in need of greater care, and must take mine full attention.”
“...really?” Akane asked, hope in her voice.
Ranma, however, felt a flush of confusion run through her heart. He was—she’d finally thought she was getting something through the thick skull that sat beneath his handsome face, but, no. Now he was... now he was...
“You two—thr—four timing jerk!” Ranma blurted, before punching him in the gut.
Kuno doubled over as she rushed past, muttering bitterly to herself.
“Ra—wait!” Akane shouted behind her.
“Pigtailed girl!” Kuno shouted.
She didn’t care about either of them right now. She’d just had her heart broken.
That’s what she got for opening up to a boy. Especially in her birth form. She needed to wait. Until she could get rid of her birth form. Then she’d be able to get a boyfriend.
For now, though... for now she just needed to hunker down and soldier up and get on with her life. Focus on school.
“RANMA!!” Akane shouted, breaking through her focus.
She blinked, turning around. She’d been ready to yell at Akane. To get in a fight.
Or cry into her shoulder. She hadn’t been certain.
Instead she was left blinking, staring as she saw Akane dragging Kuno by the wrist. He looked about as confused as Ranma felt right now.
“We’re showing him this until he figures it out,” Akane said, her face scrunched up in determination.
Ranma found her wrist grabbed as Akane dragged Kuno past. She was pulled along with just as much force. And left blushing by how close this was to holding hands with Tatewaki.
What she didn’t understand was why Akane was doing this. Kuno had already dumped her. What was the point?
She and Kuno were both shoved into the kitchen as soon as they’d taken their shoes off. Kasumi let out a gasp at the forced entrance into her space.
“Is there a kettle ready?” Akane asked.
“Oh? I—Yes?” Kasumi replied, still taking a moment to process things.
“Good, now, Kuno-senpai, watch Ranma,” Akane said, while hurrying off to grab the kettle.
“Wait, but—” Ranma started to say when Akane interrupted her with a kettle full of pleasantly hot water.
If only the transformation was more pleasant.
“Ran... ma?” Kuno said.
“Yeah, it’s me,” she muttered. “Did you want ta break up with me again, or—”
She found herself pulled into a hug before she could finish.
“My beloved fledgeling goddess!” he said, still hugging her.
“What?” Ranma mumbled into his shoulder.
There was also a quiet ‘oh my’ from Kasumi, but that barely registered in Ranma’s mind.
“You knew the doofus didn’t understand you’re you in both forms,” Akane said in a flat tone.
“Both—I do not understand, but that does remind me that I must inquire how it is that this switching of places works with the pigtailed girl?” Tatewaki said.
“Oh,” Ranma whispered, mostly to herself. “Riiight.”
Tatewaki stared down at her expectantly.
“I’m... they’re... I am the pigtailed girl,” Ranma mumbled.
“P-pardon? How canst two people be one?” he asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion.
“It’s a curse. I transform inta a girl with cold water from it... it’s how I learned I was a girl,” Ranma said, barely more than a whisper.
Another comment of ‘oh my’ from Kasumi.
“You transform? ‘Tis not a magic that causes you and her to switch places? Much like a ninja’s substitution technique?” Tatewaki asked.
“Uh... no? That’s why my clothes and hairstyle don’t change and I use the same name and... uh, talk the same and... everythin’?” Ranma replied.
“You... if that were so, then why doth you return to this form, especially as thee were recently so surprised to be beautiful in thine birth form?” Tatewaki asked.
“Uh... well, I didn’t get it at first... and then I, uh... I’ve got ta... there’s this seppuku pledge,” Ranma mumbled. “My parents say I gotta be a man among men. Somehow.”
Tatewaki’s eyes flared full of a wild energy that made her heart flutter.
He then rushed off, charging towards the living room, his bokuto drawn. Ranma took a moment to respond, before rushing after him. She found him standing over the three parents, the fathers at the shogi board and Nodoka at the table.
“Saotome parents!” Tatewaki bellowed. “I hath come to challenge the seppuku pledge ye hath forced upon your daughter!”
Ranma paled, her heart dropping into her stomach. That had—he’d just told her parents that she was a—
“What are you talking about?” Genma asked, standing up.
Tatewaki spun, lifting his bokuto to point at Genma’s neck.
“Your beauteous daughter has been forced to hide her most fair and bewitching femininity due to this impossible pledge thee hath forced upon her,” Tatewaki said. “I know not if ye two mightst be brought to sense, but know that I shalt take her within mine own home if ye wouldst continue this insult to her womanhood!”
Silence hung in the air a moment. Until Genma broke it.
“What?”
“There doth be no honour in this! Forcing the beautiful, kindly, and delicate soul of a maiden to live as a man is but senseless cruelty that I, an honour bound bushi, can not ignore!” Tatewaki shouted, shifting to a fighting pose.
“From what I can put together out of yer pointless yapping... I think you’re trying to make my son live as a woman? And I won’t stand for that!” Genma countered, sliding into his own combat stance.
Ranma expected them to both take a moment to wait for an opening, but... nope. They both charged immediately. There was a brief clash before Genma leapt back, into the yard. Tatewaki charged after him, swinging his bokuto. Only to get a kick to the stomach.
Which Genma then decided to laugh about. Causing him to get bashed on the head by Tatewaki’s wooden blade.
This led to another clash, and another retreat by both parties. Genma seeming to get more serious this round.
And another round followed, with yet higher intensity.
However, when Genma retreated this time, he landed on one of the rocks around the koi pond, and slipped on the smooth algae covered stone. With his enemy falling into a pond, Tatewaki lowered his guard, turning to Ranma and the others with a smile.
Only to be tackled by a panda bear. Genma’s newly ursine jaws broke the bokuto between his teeth.
Ranma realised, as Tatewaki tried to scramble out of Genma’s clawed grip, that her father was actually determined to injure Tatewaki. Her new boyfriend. Her first real one. The first boy who had accepted her after finding out how she’d been born...
Also, well, she never really felt that many qualms about beating up her old man.
So she dashed in, delivering an ax kick to the back of her father’s head. The panda splayed on the ground, before she grabbed him by the scruff and suplexed him hard enough to bury his head in the dirt.
Standing up, she took a moment to brush some dust off of her before turning to Tatewaki.
“Are you ok?”
Tatewaki blinked, staring at her for a moment. “I was wrong. Thou art not a delicate flower.”
Ranma felt her heart do another backflip. It was because she’d just been violent in her birth form, wasn’t it? She’d just gone and utterly ruined his belief in her girlhood...
“Nay,” he said, nodding to himself as he stood up. “Thou are like the flowers which grow upon a rocky cliff face, beautiful yet indomitable.”
“Oh,” she mumbled, cheeks going red.
That was... that might have been the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to her.
However, matters weren’t finished. Her mother stepped out of the Tendo home, a serious look in her eyes.
She still had one parent left to deal with.
“Kuno-kun... would you be from the Kuno family that owns the large estate in Nerima?” Nodoka asked.
“I doth be?” Tatewaki replied.
“You seem like an honourable young man,” she said.
“I doth attempt to live as a samurai should.”
Nodoka nodded, then turned to Ranma. “Rich, noble, tall, and handsome. Excellent taste, my dear.”
“P-pardon?” Ranma asked.
“If I must give up the honourable son I thought I had, then I could certainly do worse as a replacement,” her mother explained, before walking over and giving her a hug.
Right. She’d bagged a rich samurai. The one type of guy that could make her mother forget about the whole seppuku pledge.
Ranma had led Tatewaki to the bathroom. She wanted to clean off his scrapes from her father’s claws. She trusted that, between her mother and the Tendo girls, her father would either see reason or storm off for a while. So she could focus on her boyfriend.
A sentence that made her heart flutter.
What also made her heart flutter was the way Tatewaki was looking at her. Especially when he lifted a hand, gently cupping her cheek.
When he leaned in and kissed her that was well past a flutter. Even if the kiss had lasted barely a moment, the meaning of it was overwhelming.
“I--I’m not... I don’t even look like a girl right now,” she whispered.
“You look like yourself, and you are a girl,” Tatewaki whispered. “So, as such, you look like a girl.”
It had been over a week and Ranma still found it thrilling to be out in the city in one of the outfits Tatewaki had bought for her. Especially the ones for her birth form. She’d never quite shaken off the feeling that being a girl in her cursed form was faking it. So this, this felt so real.
Especially with Tate-kun holding her hand as they walked to school.
However, Ukyo was looking much less thrilled this morning.
“I don’t knows who be worse, your father or Akane’s,” he muttered. “But they’s both wants me to lets Genma adopt me.”
“I wouldn’t mind having you for a brother, Ukkun,” Ranma said with a grin.
“Maybe I wouldn’t mind that, but having your old man for a dad...” Ukyo muttered.
“You can just lead them on for a bit,” Akane said, taking his hand. “For my sake at least, dear?”
“Maybe,” Ukyo muttered.
Ranma offered him a smile.