Chapter Text
The mountain was falling apart. Ranma and Herb's battle had done severe structural damage to the ground itself, making terra far from firma.
The six boys fell down as the rocks split under their feet. There were spurts of water everywhere from underground springs as the ground started falling apart. Mousse’s curse was triggered, changing him into a duck, so he took to the sky to get out of the collapse. The others were less lucky, riding the destruction to the ground by surfing the avalanche, bouncing from boulder to boulder to avoid being crushed by countless tons of rock, Ranma, once again a girl, holding the unconscious Herb, also a girl. Alone among the Jusenkyo-cursed youths, Ryoga didn't transform, which he attributed to sheer good luck. The water must have just hit his clothes and not his body.
It wasn't until they made it to the ground and got clear of the rubble that, after having set Herb down and figuring out that nobody had actually died or sustained serious injury, Ranma looked at Ryoga suspiciously. "How come you didn't change, P-chan?"
Ryoga shrugged his shoulders. "Didn't get splashed, I guess."
"Didn't get splashed?” Ranma asked irritatedly, “You're soaked, you idiot!"
And as much as Ryoga wanted to argue with his rival (because he preferred to disagree with him on every topic just on general principle), Ranma was right. He was soaked. He could hear water sloshing around in his shoes when he walked.
"Then maybe the water wasn’t cold enough?" His own body betrayed him at the moment, as the chilliness of the water made him shiver.
Soaked. With cold water. And he didn't change.
Ryoga refused to believe it. There's no way something that great could have happened to him.
"Hey, P-chan. See that stream behind you?"
Ryoga turned around to look. "What about it?"
He was not prepared for the kick to the back of his head that knocked him off the bank and into the water.
"What'd you do that for?" the very human Ryoga Hibiki yelled at Ranma.
Human. In cold water. Human. Cold water. No. No way.
"How the hell did you get cured?" yelled Ranma, incensed.
Ryoga couldn't believe it. But it seemed to be true. He splashed more cold water onto himself. No change. He started giggling. Then laughing.
Just a few hours recently, he had been stuck as a pig and filled with the terror that he might never have a human body ever again. But now… he was somehow entirely cured of the pig? How?
He didn't care. Not one bit. "I'm cured!" He laughed and splashed in the water. "I'm cured!" he told Ranma and got a very terse and reluctant 'congratulations' from him. "I'm cured!" he told Mousse, who pecked him angrily on his head.
“I’m cured!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.
He fell on his back and looked up to the sky. He was tired, dirty, sore, and he’d just gone through one of the most traumatic experiences of his entire life.
And he’d never been happier.
"Isn't it a beautiful day," Ryoga asked.
Ranma looked at him with a murderous expression. "It's raining."
"I know! I can walk in the rain now!" He gasped in realization. "Swimming! I used to love to go swimming! I can't wait to do it again!"
"Yeah, good for you, you lucky bastard," Ranma said, muttering the last three words.
They had sneaked into the bath of the Tendo house for the benefit of Ranma, who wanted to transform back to male form before greeting anyone. Given that they were no longer stuck in their cursed forms, Ryoga expected the other two to be a bit less glum.
But they sat silent in the tub, glowering at his good fortune.
It was when Ryoga filled a bucket with hot water and poured it on himself that the trouble started.
As he felt his body shrinking and turning from bi- to quadruped, the thought that first ran through his brain was "Shit! I really thought I had been cured this time! I don't know which is going to be worse: becoming a pig again, or the taunting about it that Ranma's going to give me."
There were a variety of factors that made Ryoga realize things were different this time. First, his point of view seemed wrong. Higher. Like he was standing on a stool or something. The floor felt wrong. That is, he could feel more of it, which was odd. There was a horrible stench, like the worst, smelliest changing room he'd ever been in, filled with teenagers with extremely poor hygiene. Ranma was looking at him with horror. Mousse put on his glasses and looked towards Ryoga.
"Where's Hibiki? And where did that dog come from?"
Dog? Ryoga looked around himself. He didn't see any dog, until he got a glance of one in the mirror. A white, furry dog. But when he looked at where the dog must be based on the reflection, there was no dog there.
Wait a second.
Ryoga lifted one foreleg up. The reflected dog did the same. He set it down again and lifted the other one up. Mirror dog copied his movements exactly.
He trotted over to the mirror and lifted his leg up to touch it.
The dog's paw touched his own.
It was him. He was the dog. He tried to make the squealing noise he commonly made as P-chan. The only sound he heard was barking.
Somehow, even though they hadn't gone to China, he'd gotten a new curse.
Then, the most horrifying moment of realization: he'd transformed after pouring hot water over his body.
No, it had to be a mistake. Only cold water triggered the curse. Hot water cured it.
With a desperate prayer to whatever gods happened to be listening, Ryoga leaped into the tub with a tremendous splash.
One second. Two. Three. Four.
After fifteen seconds without returning to human form, Ryoga finally allowed himself to think it.
He was cursed to become a dog, and the curse was locked.
He was trapped in an unwanted body again. The kettle to unlock the curses… had it been buried under thousands of tons of mountain rock? Was it genuinely a curse for life now?
Ryoga screamed, which translated to a loud and mournful howl.
Akane slammed open the door to the bathing area. "What is going on here?"
It was an odd scene. There, next to the tub, Ranma and Mousse were holding tightly to a dog, who was thrashing about and howling. They looked at her. "Uh… hi!", Ranma waved.
Mousse let go of the dog to cover his genitals. "How dare you peep on me, Akane Tendo!" he yelled accusingly towards his own mirror reflection. Unwilling to let go of the dog to cover his own shame, Ranma maneuvered so that the dog's body covered his own. Akane blushed and turned around so she was no longer facing the boys.
"So, uh… we're back."
"Clearly." Akane sighed. "It's good to see you're safe." Akane stiffened. "Where's Ryoga? Please tell me he didn't…"
"Ryoga's fine… he's safe."
Her shoulders sagged in relief. "Oh, thank goodness. I try not to be superstitious about things, but there have been so many bad omens while you were gone." She took a breath and then asked, with a somewhat harder edge, "So, do you have an explanation for taking a dog with you in our bath?"
"He.. was cold?” That sounded like a good reason. “Yeah, he was cold."
“That’s not what I was asking for. What I wanted to know…” she turned around and looked closely at the dog. “She's a good looking girl, isn't she?”
“No, this is a male. He was lost and cold, so we brought him here to warm him up,” Ranma said, not technically lying.
Akane stroked the dog on its head. “Don't be frightened. Nobody's going to hurt you,” she said in a soft voice. It was effective. Ryoga stopped howling and thrashing, but still seemed thoroughly down. “Why don't I dry you off and we can figure out how we'll find your family, okay?”
“We don't really know if he has a home, actually.”
“Oh come on, Ranma. There's no way a big handsome dog like this doesn't already have a family somewhere.”
Akane rubbed Ryoga's head with a large towel. She ran her hand along his side. I don't think I'm going to get you any dryer with this, she brandished the towel, then tossed it in a dirty laundry bin. “Why don't you come to the living room with me?" Akane smiled brightly.
As devastated as he was, Akane's gentle kindness moved him. He trotted after her. ’Maybe being a dog won't be so bad if I can be with her.’
As they reached the living room, Kasumi looked over at them. “Did you find out what that noise was… oh my, where did the dog come from?”
Akane sat down at the table, Ryoga sitting next to her. "Ranma and Mousse are back. They found this lost dog, apparently."
“They're back?” The other Tendos and a sign-wielding panda asked.
“Ranma and Mousse are back, but what about Ryoga?” Kasumi asked.
“Ranma said he was all right. He just got lost.”
“That sounds like him.” “Very typical.” “Classic Ryoga.”
Dog-Ryoga snorted, piqued at the slander. Sure, it was true he got lost a lot, but this time, he actually wasn't!
“Anyway, I need to figure out where this dog belongs. He doesn't have a collar or anything, just the neckerchief.” She paused. “That's Ryoga's headband! He must know where this dog belongs!”
“That does make sense,” murmured Nabiki, while Soun and Genma coughed uncomfortably.
“He's such a sweetie.” Akane gave him a hug. “I wish I could keep him.”
Ryoga found that his tail had started wagging.
“Do we have any food that a dog could eat?”
“There was some leftover meat from the stir fry. Let me get a bowl of that and some water for him.”
Lapping up water as a dog was humiliating, partially because he was bad at it and partially because everyone was watching him. On the other hand, the cold meat tasted like the most delicious food he'd ever eaten. Hunger was the best sauce, it seemed.
By now, several minutes had passed since his unexpected transformation, and he was taking stock of his situation in a more clear-headed way. Now that he’d thought about it, being stuck in the body of a dog was superior to being stuck in a pig's body. For one thing, he felt less vulnerable. He felt like he could be a pretty effective fighter as a largish dog. Not to mention that, apart from vegetarians and people from certain religious groups, nearly everyone ate pork, while almost nobody would ever even think of eating dog. And while Akane was always sweet to the pig, she was being sweet in an altogether different way to a dog she had just met.
Also she smelled really nice.
And hope was starting to return. Ranma was definitely going to help him look for a way to unlock this curse. While Ryoga couldn't stand Ranma for most of the time, he knew that the other boy was tenacious. He wouldn't give up, no matter what. And Mousse was another brother in arms now. And they'd probably be able to get the old lady to help out and she knew almost everything.
And nobody was more tenacious than Ryoga himself. He swore an oath that he was going to find a cure. He wouldn't rest for anything until he did.
“Hey, boy, do you want to go play in the garden?”
…After he played with Akane in the garden.
She had an old tennis ball which she showed to the dog. “I'm gonna throw it, so you fetch it back, okay?”
He wagged his tail in response.
She threw it over the koi pond. Ryoga tore off in pursuit. ‘I get to top speed quickly, don't I?’ He wove through obstacles until he could get his jaws on the ball.
He let go of it in order to throw it back when he realized he couldn't without arms. Sheepishly, he picked it up with his mouth again and carried it to Akane, dropping it at her feet.
She threw it a few more times and in turn every time he fetched it. He noticed that he'd been using his sense of smell as much as his eyes to track the location of the ball. He started to be curious about how his eyesight would be like in the dark.
After awhile, after dropping the ball, he tore off before she could throw it, then faced her.
“You want to try catching it?” she guessed.
He wagged his tail and barked affirmatively.
She tossed it to him which he easily got. When he returned it, he tried to communicate with a look that she should make it more difficult for him.
That message got through, as she started pitching it like a baseball, well over his head. With his springy legs and good instincts, he caught it every time.
‘No wonder dogs like doing this. This is fun.’
He finally missed one, thrown about two meters high. When he tracked the ball down again and returned it to her, he gave her a look that said 'again.'
She launched it again. This time using all his effort, he hit the apex of his leap just as the ball arrived, catching it firmly in his jaws. He noticed, however, that he was going to land in the koi pond. I'll need to dry off again, he thought as he approached the water. Still, he caught her hardest thrown ball. He'd caught it. He'd caught it.
He splashed into the pond. He let go of the ball. "I caught it," he yelled triumphantly.
‘Yelled?’
He looked down. Hands. Arms. Legs. A human body.
"Oh my." Kasumi stared, shocked, at the transformed boy.
"I'm a man,” he murmured. “I'm a man! I'm a man!" he yelled triumphantly.
"Well clearly," grinned Nabiki after having swiftly taken some beefcake photos that she'd need to partially censor before selling.
"What's going on?" screeched Akane, face beet red and eyes covered.
He was jubilant. "I'm a man, Akane!" He called out, running out of the pond toward her. "Look, I'm a man."
"I believe you! But get dressed!" She had seen too many penises for one day.
“I'm a man!” He grew closer. Afraid she was about to be hugged by her bare-assed friend, she blindly punched out, clipping him on the chin.
While not enough to knock him out, it was at least enough to captured his attention. He fully comprehended the situation at last. He screamed. "Don't look!"
"I'm not!"
When Ranma and Mousse entered the living room, Akane was standing in a corner, refusing to look at anyone, Nabiki was whistling a happy tune as she retrieved the film roll from her camera, and Kasumi, unflappable as ever, was handing a bright-red Ryoga a towel which he swiftly wrapped around himself. “You changed back?” He sighed in relief. If most people asked him why, he'd say that after having just come home from a quest, he didn't fancy immediately going out on another one. If Akane asked him, he might admit to her that he had been scared for his enemy/rival/friend and was relieved seeing him 'normal' again.
“So, you've got a Jusenkyo curse to become a dog,” Akane said. While changing the last word of that sentence would have been the sentence he'd most fear coming from her lips, with this, at least he had nothing to fear. "I don't know. We didn't go to China so I don't know how I could have gotten a curse. And,” he chuckled nervously, “I guess the water works backwards.”
But that's a good thing, right? Because you're a lot more likely to get randomly splashed with cold water than hot, so you might only become a dog when you take a bath.
“I guess. It might make things more awkward in public baths, though.”
Akane touched his arm and smiled. “You don't need to be so nervous. You didn't do anything wrong.”
“Besides almost jumping you when his junk was hanging out.”
In sync, Akane and Ryoga punched Ranma.
The boys had had a brief discussion, all of them agreeing that the smartest move in their current situation was to ask the person who knew the most about Chinese curses. Akane, was slightly miffed that Ranma would be seeing Shampoo so soon after returning home, but conceded the wisdom of getting Cologne’s advice. Nonetheless, she invited herself along, just to stop Shampoo from taking too many liberties.
The small group made their way to the Nekohanten. Once they arrived, Shampoo hugged Ranma, which, despite her jealousy, Akane didn't begrudge… until after two seconds anyway. “Can you get off him? He hasn't even been gone that long!”
Shampoo’s greetings of Ryoga and Mousse were far more perfunctory, but a seasoned observer could actually see a look of relief in her eyes that no one had died.
Sat down in a chair in the middle of the room, Cologne examined Ryoga, touching various pressure points with an unreadable expression. Finally done, she brandished a kettle. Ryoga braced himself as she poured it on him. He transformed into dog form, which she scratched on the head, deep in thought. She then brandished a jug of cold water, which she poured on the dog returning him to human form. Akane averted her gaze while he got dressed again. Shampoo and Cologne didn't bother.
Once Ryoga was fully clothed, Cologne pointed towards the door. “Everyone out. I need to talk to Hibiki alone.”
With much muttering the group left, the old woman closing the door behind them. After several minutes, Ryoga and Cologne emerged from the room, the boy now rather pale.
"What's going on?" asked Ranma.
"I… don't know. Grandma Cologne has an idea. I don't want her to be right, but the only way I can disprove her is by going back to Horai. I'll have to dig through the rocks to try and find the pail and the kettle. It could take years, and I might never be successful. But I've got to try. So I'm going to go.
Ranma clapped a hand on Ryoga’s shoulder. “Then I'm going with you, old friend.”
Instantly, Ryoga teared up. "Ranma! You're such a good guy!" He sobbed and hugged the other boy.
“I'll come too!” Declared Akane. Shampoo, loath to let Akane and Ranma have time together, announced her intention to come along as well.
Akane turned to the other boy. “You're coming too, right Mousse?”
“No. It's pointless.”
“Pointless?” screeched Ryoga.
“Yeah, pointless. Didn't you see me bring the pail and the kettle back with me from Horai?”
There was a long pause, then Ranma grabbed Mousse’s shirt. “Why didn’t you say that earlier? I got all sappy and sincere for nothing!”
“You didn’t ask!”
Cologne entered the bath. “Right. Everyone’s in the restaurant. My great-granddaughter, son-in-law, and that hanger-on don’t want to be anywhere near water from the pail of preservation.” She chuckled. “Can’t say I blame them.” She picked up the ladle and twirled it. “So, shall we start with that, then?”
Terrified by the memory of the last time he’d been splashed by water from the pail, words failed Ryoga. Finally he grunted. “Do it.”
Cologne scooped water from the pail and poured it over him. He remained human.
“As expected. Now let’s try with ordinary hot water.”
Ryoga nodded and poured a pre-filled bucket over his head.
He remained human. He was glad not to turn into a dog again, but given that this supported Cologne’s theory, his feelings were mixed at best.
“Good. Now, try with ordinary cold water.”
He upended another bucket, and suddenly the lights went out. “What happened?” he tried to yell, but only squeals came out.
The pig. He wasn’t done with the pig yet, it seemed. If he could speak he would have cursed.
Cologne lifted P-chan’s bucket prison. “So the pig curse is still around,” she said to herself. She filled a bucket and held it over him. “Ordinary hot water again.” She poured it over the pig who turned back into a human.
As much as he disliked it, at least it felt normal.
“I don’t think we need to pour more water from the pail on you. You’ve already proven that you’ll be stuck as the pig.”
“Yeah,” Ryoga said. “I don’t want to risk doing that ever again.”
“So, the next step: water from the kettle of liberation. Are you ready?”
He nodded.
She poured the hot water over him, transforming him from human to dog.
Ryoga whined. This was not what he wanted.
“And finally, regular cold water.” She filled another bucket and poured it over to him. Ryoga’s human body returned, though he looked just as hangdog as he had been in canine form. “I know you don’t want to hear this, boy, but your human body is reacting as I’d expect it to if it was the Jusenkyo curse and the dog body was your natural form.”
“I… I can’t accept this. This can’t be true.”
“Accept it or not, it doesn’t change the facts. Splashing you with the pail of preservation freezes your cursed form. Splashing you with the kettle of liberation changes you back to your natural form. Then you got another curse which complicated things.”
Ryoga hung his head lower. “It’s just not possible.”
“In any case, I’ll let you make the decision for yourself. Freeze yourself into a human body that occasionally becomes a pig, and never turn into a dog again, or become a part-time dog, part-time boy, and never turn into a pig again. It’s up to you.”
“It should be an easy choice. Being a dog is way better than being a pig. But it feels like I’m admitting that I’m really a dog.”
“Sonny, here’s my advice. Stay as is for awhile. If you want to lose your dog body for good, I’ll hold onto these artifacts.”
“Thanks granny.” Though he didn’t feel grateful.
“So, what’s the verdict, Rover?”
Ryoga did not react to the provocation other than tensing his jaw.
“Did you figure out what’s going on, Ryoga?” Akane asked more sensitively.
“I…” He froze when he realized he didn’t know how to answer that question. It’s not that he didn’t know the answer—it’s that he refused to accept it.
Akane lightly patted his arm. “Never mind. Let’s go home.”
“Yeah.” That sparked a thought. “Wait–do you remember where my house is?”
Akane and Ranma both nodded.
“I’d like to go there. I’m sure my mom and dad won’t be home, but it’s my best chance of talking with them.” ‘And getting some answers,’ he did not add.
His request was expressed in such a heartfelt way that Ranma didn’t even tease him about it. “Sure, bud. Let’s take you home.”
The trio were still a few blocks away from the Hibiki house when Shirokuro ran up to greet them with a friendly bark, then grabbed Ryoga’s sleeve in her teeth and pulled him along. “Geez, girl, not so fast! You’ll make me fall down?” As down as he had been feeling, Shirokuro’s overwhelming affection always cheered him up a bit.
Ranma went to the kitchen to boil up a kettle: partly for tea and partly because of the inevitable cold-water splashing that had occurred en route. While Akane played with Shirokuro’s energetic puppies, Ryoga stroked and scratched their mother. “I’m so glad to see you. You would not believe the time I’ve had.” The memory of being stuck as a pig chilled his soul again.
“You should show her your doggy self,” Ranma teased, brandishing the kettle.
“Ranma! Leave him alone!” She thought for a moment. “But that might not be a bad idea. If you transform in front of her, she’ll realize that it’s still you and not some strange dog.”
Ryoga was certain that she would recognize him without seeing him change, but given that his evidence for that was the fact that Shirokuro had recognized that he was the same as the small black piglet, he didn’t really want to call attention to it. He nodded to Ranma, who poured the hot water over him.
Shirokuro and all the puppies stared at the unexpected canine. Then she barked happily, and closed her eyes.
In front of all of them, Shirokuro grew into a tall woman with long black and white hair. “You got it back!” she exclaimed then hugged canine Ryoga tightly as Ranma and Akane looked on in slack-jawed amazement.