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“That… That jerk!” Akane screamed and slammed her fist against the wall beside her. “Where does he get off calling her cute like that?”
Just when Akane had started to trust him again, Ranma had the audacity to flirt with another girl right in front of her!
It had been a week since Ranma’s childhood friend Ucchan came barrelling into their lives.
A week of having to endure Ukyo’s smug face lording her status as Ranma’s “cute” fiancée over Akane.
“Stupid Ranma!” Akane shrieked and drove her hand further into the wall, causing cracks to spiderweb out from the point of impact.
The school’s hallway behind her looked much the same. A clear footpath from her stomping and a series of dented walls and shattered windows left in the wake of her rampage.
“Akane? Akane Tendo?”
An unfamiliar voice called out to her.
A boy’s voice.
Akane turned and made eye contact with a rather plain looking boy. He had scruffy black hair, a slim build, and lopsided glasses plastered to his face.
“Great, just what I needed. Some idiot boy to bother me.” Akane groused internally before schooling her features and putting on a fake smile.
“I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met.” Akane tilted her head and let her smile drop ever so slightly. “How do you know me?”
The boy’s face fell before he sighed and scratched the back of his neck with his left hand.
“Akane, we’ve been in the same class every year since kindergarten.”
Akane winced. “Awesome. Now I’m the jerk. Ranma must be infecting me with his bad manners.”
“Hey don’t sweat it, Akane. I know you haven’t always been the biggest fan of the boys in our class.” The boy, her longtime classmate apparently, gave her a soft smile and cleared his throat. “Keisuke Takeda. I, uh, actually almost offered you my second button at the end of middle school, but I never quite worked up the nerve.”
“I’m sorry Keisuke, but if you’re here to confess-”
“NO!” a cough “Sorry. No, it’s not like that. I saw all those other boys attack you every morning, so I get it.”
Akane sighed in relief before giving Keisuke a much more genuine smile.
“Well, then what can I do for you Keisuke?” Akane leaned against the wall separating the nearest classroom from the hallway and gestured to the spot next to her.
Keisuke took the wordless invitation and joined her on the wall.
“I’ve seen what’s been going on between you and the new girl, over Ranma I mean.” Keisuke paused and glanced at her, “I just figured someone should tell you what he’s too scared to say.”
“Please don’t tell me Ranma sent him to dump me. That coward couldn’t even say it to my face!” Akane’s face contorted in anger as she began to spiral over her stupid perverted idiot of a fiancé.
“He loves you Akane. Like really loves you.”
“What!?”
“Not to share too many secrets from the guy’s locker room buuuutt… He’ll give any guy a hard time for talking about a girl too crassly, but he’s only ever thrown punches over someone running their mouth about you.” Keisuke smiled at her and shrugged. “Knocked Shingo out with one punch and said if he caught any of us saying anything like that about you again he wouldn’t pull the next one.”
Akane rolled her eyes. “Yeah right. I don’t know if you heard, but apparently Ukyo is his ‘cute’ fiancée” She groaned and pushed herself off of the wall. “Listen Keisuke, I really do appreciate the pep talk, but you don’t have to lie to me. He’s made it very clear he doesn’t find me attractive.”
The black haired boy cocked an eyebrow at her and shrugged. “Akane, I don’t know if it’s possible for me to lie to someone as kind as you. I really do mean it.” He paused as if debating his next words. “He doesn’t even get that mad when one of the guys tries to splash him for a peek at his girl side.”
“Excuse me?”
Akane’s vision went white.
“Remember when he was stuck as a girl for a while?” Keisuke waited for Akane to nod. “Well he was changing for gym in the nurse’s office the whole time.”
Akane nodded again for him to continue.
“When he could go guy again he came back to our locker room, but some time after, some of the guys have made it their mission to make him go girl.” He scratched the back of his neck once again.
“Why didn’t he say anything? How long has this been going on?” Akane looked crestfallen as she internalized another reality of Ranma’s curse. It didn’t matter that they all knew he was born a boy, they treated him like they’d treat any girl that ended up in that locker room.
“He’s never done more than shoving whoever splashed him into the lockers, but Shingo made one comment on your body, and he knocked him on his ass.” Keisuke shrugged, “He didn’t do that when Kiichi did the same about Ukyo.”
That was… wholly unexpected. “Even if he didn’t really think Ukyo was cute, why wouldn’t he react as strongly for his oldest childhood friend?”
“What about Shampoo then? She’s always hanging all over him, surely he’s gotten into it over her too?”
Keisuke shook his head. “Actually she might be the only girl he hasn’t bothered defending. I don’t think he likes her at all. She smashed through the wall into the locker room once, and he took off running to avoid her.”
“So what, you’re telling me he hates the beautiful Amazon warrior who’s already legally married to him by her laws?”
A smile tugged on the corner of Keisuke’s lips. “I mean she literally turns into his worst fear yeah? Not exactly marriage material. Shingo and Kiichi have said a lot of stuff about her, and he doesn’t do more than give them a look.”
Akane put a finger to her chin. “Wait Shingo and Kiichi, are these those two boys who are always hanging around him?”
“No that’s Hiroshi and Daisuke.” Keisuke’s face morphed into one of confusion. “Akane… Do you know the name of any guy in our class?”
Akane opened her mouth to retort that of course she knew the names of the boys in her class only to close it as she realized she couldn’t name a single one that hadn’t come up so far in her short conversation with Keisuke.
As soon as she was about to give up and concede the point to Keisuke, she suddenly remembered the quiet boy in their class who was always looking over occult magazines and playing with homemade voodoo dolls and talismans.
“Sure I do! The boy who dresses in all black and has bags under his eyes! He was the one who figured out the nekoken first! Sasuke right?”
Keisuke pressed his lips together to form a thin line. “No Akane, that’s Hikaru Gosunkugi.”
“Oh. Right.”
Kesiuke failed to suppress a chuckle and began laughing in earnest at her.
“It’s not funny!” Akane stifled a giggle of her own and covered her mouth with her hand.
“Hey ‘Kane, this guy bothering you?” The familiar sound of Ranma’s girl side came from behind her.
Akane turned around to find her currently girl-shaped fiancé wringing water out of his signature red silk shirt, uncaring about the trail of water he left behind him. She reflexively began to scold him over his lack of feminine modesty before realizing that, for once, Ranma Saotome’s chest was properly covered by a plain black tank top.
There was something off about the shape of his breasts. They almost seemed… smaller. Not that Akane would know the normal shape of Ranma’s girl side! She would never memorize every curve of the red-haired girl’s body.
“Are you wearing a bra?”
Ranma froze, and his cheeks tinged a light pink color.
“I bet his hair would look just as pretty pink as it does red.” Akane mused to herself as she waited for Ranma’s brain to catch up and spit out a completely unbelievable excuse.
“Sports bra, Kasumi insisted I keep in my bag after the whole c-c-c-c-feline tongue fiasco.” Ranma muttered and turned his head away from the pair in front of him. “Anyway, I asked you a question first Tomboy!”
Akane rolled her eyes for what felt like the fifteenth time in the past five minutes and stuck her tongue out at him. “Actually no. He was just telling me something I think I really needed to hear.” Akane smiled back at Keisuke before grabbing Ranma’s hand and dragging him down the hall.
“Thanks for the pep talk Keisuke, but I need to get going now.” Akane turned her head to look back over her shoulder and caught Kesiuke giving her a thumbs up and a big smile.
“He’s really not so bad. For a boy anyway.” Akane chuckled and turned her head back to face forward.
“What’s so funny, Tomboy?” Ranma eyed her suspiciously.
“Oh nothing! You just always find ways to surprise me, Ranma.” Akane lifted her right leg and swung her foot softly into Ranma’s backside. “I’m glad your friend Ukyo is back in your life, genuinely.”
Ranma snorted and swung his left foot into Akane’s backside, returning the favor. “Is it bad if I’m still having trouble seeing her as a girl? I keep replaying the bits I remember over in my head and I just keep seeing a little boy.”
“Do you think it’s bad when people see you as a girl?” Akane’s voice was quiet. Quiet enough to prevent anyone from overhearing her without a recording device.
Ranma shrugged and nudged her with his hip. “After spending damn near all summer as a girl, I don’t really care anymore. Guys can be gross about it, and they refuse to take me seriously, but I can take care of myself.”
“Oh does that mean I should call you my fiancée when you’re like this?” Akane smirked and nudged Ranma back. “We could share clothes and makeup!”
“You can call me whatever you want if I can borrow that baggy black top with the English words on it.” Ranma huffed at her, but he was unable to hide his own smirk. “I think it says milk boy on it?”
“Only if you let me pair it with a cute skirt! I have this striped one that would look great on you.”
“Yeah yeah, yuck it up ‘Kane.” Ranma pulled his hand free from Akane’s grasp and put both his hands behind his head, interlacing his fingers. “Better get used to sharing clothes with me ‘Kane. Not like my girl body is going anywhere anytime soon. We’ve got a long life ahead of us, ya know?”
“Does he even realize what he just implied?” Akane softly smiled. Content to not call attention to his usual foot in mouth behavior. Instead, she chose to enjoy the moment and savor the glimpse at his real feelings.
“Thanks for all the help Keisuke. I feel like I’m seeing Ranma in a whole new light because of you!”
Nabiki Tendo smirked and crossed her arms after playing back the conversation on the recording device in front of her.
“You did good Keisuke, consider your tab settled.”
Keisuke blanched as he stared at the Ice Queen of Furinkan herself from across the desk. “I can’t believe you made me do that. She’s your sister, Nabiki!”
Nabiki rolled her eyes and blew a raspberry at the younger boy. “Exactly. She’s my sister. Don’t go sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. Our business is officially concluded.”
Ignoring the further protests of the boy in front of her, Nabiki turned around to face her right-hand gal Ryonami. “Go ahead and open a betting pool on both the lovebirds.”
“What’s the play, Boss?”
“‘Will Akane come out before the end of the year’ for hers”
Ryonami nodded and scribbled down the bet into Nabiki’s black book. “And Ranma’s?”
Nabiki flashed an evil smirk. “‘Will Ranma go full girl by the end of high school’ for hers.”