Part One, Chapter Two: An Interlude Before The Potato Soup – Er, I Mean Plot - Thickens

 

Ryouga felt odd living with the Tendo and Saotome families. No one seemed to be upset about her presence, which was a relief but distinctly surprising, considering her previous reputation with the two families. But even Ranma didn’t seem to mind her, and Ryouga couldn’t manage to really believe that his old nemesis was actually being sinister and cruel in some devious way. The hatred that he had held for the pig-tailed boy – which had been fading anyway - had dwindled down to only glowing embers of faint jealousy. At least in Ranma’s case, the curse was temporary… he had all the perks of being able to be a girl without most of the downsides. Ryouga gritted her teeth at the thought of a few of those downsides. She didn’t relish the thought of any of her new hosts finding out about… exactly how totally female this damn body was. She closed her eyes, trying to shut out the anger. It wouldn’t do to have someone asking why she was so perturbed. It would be too horrifyingly embarrassing, trying to either answer or evade the questions.

Calm. Calm down, Ryouga. You’re a guest. As unfamiliar as she was to the practice of hiding anger, the completely different nature of this anger made it a requirement. Sighing and wondering briefly if staying was really the best course of action, she stood and dressed. It was the second day after she had arrived, she thought, although her sense of that time was fuzzy. She vaguely remembered being fussed over by Kasumi and – her cheeks reddened at the thought – Akane, who was understandably upset.
 
Her stomach growled loudly, reminding her forcefully that her memories did not include having eaten more than some miso soup. She changed out of the (clean and whole) pajamas she was wearing as quickly as she could, trying to avoid looking in the old full-length mirror that was leaned up against the large pile of boxes that showed the room’s history as storage space. She’d gotten over the nosebleeding habit out of necessity, but that didn’t mean that she was going to gape at herself.
 
After she was fully dressed, however, she dared a look. Kasumi had apparently been serious about altering her old clothes, she realized, because they were what she had, unknowingly in her rush not to look, put on. They had been adjusted so drastically that she hardly recognized them, cut down to fit her new body far too well, she thought. It even looked vaguely feminine, something that made Ryouga distinctly uncomfortable, but at least they fit. She dared to examine herself more closely, to the point of combing her tangled mess of pink – really, the Jusenkyou ponds had a sick sense of humor - hair into something approaching its old style. It was considerably longer than she last remembered, but she wasn’t surprised at that. It was limper than before, and the bangs hung down her face past her nose, obscuring her vision. A search for a bandanna came up futile, so she eventually gave up and split it down the middle to hang unevenly on either side of her face. The result, combined with - well, everything else – made her look uncomfortably feminine.
 
It wouldn’t be so bad if the shirt wasn’t still so long and the pants cut down so much that it looks like I’m wearing a damn mini-dress with black leggings. Turning suddenly away from the mirror, she opened the door and went downstairs quickly, preferring to deal with anyone but her current self.
 
The five residents of the house were at the table, eating a meal that Ryouga guessed to be dinner, judging by the time. It was a remarkably typical scene. Ranma and his father were fighting over some tidbit of food that one had stolen from the other; no matter which one, even the combatants probably didn’t remember. Akane was shouting at Ranma – to no noticeable effect – to stop being such a jerk; he had just knocked over her tea but hadn’t even noticed. Nabiki was taking the opportunity of the fight to pile more on her plate, including the bit being fought over. Soun was reading the newspaper, a slight tic in one eye the only indication that he was aware of the outside world at all. Ryouga took a brief moment to thank Kami-sama that Happosai wasn’t there. That was the last thing she needed. She knew that she had a figure approaching, if not exceeding, Ranma-chan’s in its… proportions. She didn’t need a reminder.
 
Then she felt the single pair of eyes that had noticed her arrival. Kasumi smiled. “Why, hello Ryouga-chan. Did you sleep well?” she asked, smiling.
 
Some – not all – of the action at the table stopped when some of the others heard. Akane blinked, putting the mallet back wherever it came from, smiled in her direction – the expression was obviously somewhat forced – and greeted, “Konbanwa, Ryouga.”
 
Ranma stopped his food battle. “Hi, Ryou – hey!” he interrupted himself. “That’s mine! Nabiki!” he accused, meanwhile defending his plate from Genma’s opportunistic attack.
 
The middle Tendo daughter just smirked at him. “Konbanwa,” she greeted absently.
 
Suddenly Ryouga noticed that the place at the foot of the table had somehow been cleared for him, and a plate of food deposited there by the ever-thoughtful eldest daughter.
 
Ryouga decided to ignore the chaos. “Yes, thank you, Kasumi,” she said, bowing, before sitting down and digging in.
 
The food tasted delicious, and she ate ravenously at first, but when it actually got to her stomach it felt as if she had eaten lead. She slowed, and then finally stopped eating. She felt slightly ill, and the appetizing meal in front of her suddenly made her want to gag. 
 
Akane noticed Ryouga suddenly stop eating and had a flash of worry. She, along with everyone else, had been surprised to see Ryouga come down to eat, acting so normal and seemingly healthy; she certainly wasn’t acting like someone who had barely been out of bed for three days. I’ve been avoiding her, she realized guiltily. But what am I supposed to say? ‘I’m sorry, Ryouga, but I don’t love you too?’ Somehow I doubt the direct approach would work. Then there’s the girl thing… She shook her head angrily at that thought. No, that has nothing to do with it. *He* loves… loved? me… I can’t believe that I didn’t realize it before. He was always so nervous around me… always brought me souvenirs from his travels… I felt so stupid when Ranma told me that it had been obvious to everyone but me that the poor boy had fallen for me practically when he first laid eyes on me. Thinking about it, Ranma seemed a little odd when he said that… he seemed almost angry at Ryouga, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t jealousy – I hope it wasn’t! I wonder what it could’ve been… her thoughts trailed off unto various tangents before she finally snapped them back to the problem at hand. Geez… thinking about this isn’t helping. I’ve got to do something…
 
All of this pondering occupied a timeframe of only about two seconds. It was mostly just a reiteration of what had been going through her mind for the past three days. Determined to say something but lacking words, she just blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “How are you feeling, Ryouga?” she asked, trying her best to seem simply concerned.
 
Ryouga was caught unprepared. “Huh?” She had been avoiding eye contact, or any sort of contact for that matter, by intently tracing the simple pattern that circled her plate. Put on the spot, she hesitantly looked up. “What? Oh, I’m okay… thank you,” she said softly. She wondered briefly what the expression on Akane’s face meant, then realized what it must be and slumped down even more. I’m making her uncomfortable. Maybe I should just leave… I don’t belong here…
 
Akane wasn’t expecting Ryouga to become even more depressed at the simple question. Damn… that was the wrong thing to say… I wish I knew why, though… She tried something else. “That’s good! Hey, if you’re feeling up to it tomorrow, would you like to go shopping with me? You’ve got an appointment with Dr. Tofu in the afternoon, so we could go afterwards… maybe get you some new clothes…” She berated herself for mention clothing even as she said it.
 
Ryouga caught the tone in Akane’s voice this time. Worry. She’s worried about me? She smiled softly. “Sure. That would be nice.”
 
Akane didn’t understand why she seemed happier now, but was glad to see that she had cheered the pink-haired girl up a little. “Good. I’m glad.”
 
“I’ll go with you,” Ranma suddenly interjected.
 
“Huh?” The two said it in perfect unison.
 
Ranma looked a bit miffed at the surprise in their voices. “Hey, I’ve got an appointment too, y’know,” he said defensively. “Besides, with the tomboy’s fashion sense… I can see it now… all the sundresses…”
 
“Hey!” Akane protested. “I don’t think you’re one to talk, Mr. red bowtie!” He wasn’t actually wearing that shirt at the moment, but the taunt was enough to upgrade the argument into a full-fledged Ranma-Akane word war.
 
Ryouga watched them for a little while, amazed at how easily they fell back into old habits. Eventually she gave up and started to nibble on her food. It didn’t seem weird at all, anymore. Everyone was behaving normally again.
 
The argument ended, as it usually did, with a mallet to Ranma’s head. Akane had refrained from using the table, at least. Wiping her hands off with a great feeling of satisfaction, Akane turned to Ryouga and smiled again. He seems better now. At least she started to eat again, she thought, totally oblivious to her inconsistent pronoun use. “*Anyway*,” she said, “as I was *going* to say, I'm glad you’re feeling better. You had us all worried, you know. And I’ll make sure baka-brain doesn’t follow us tomorrow.”

 
“I don’t mind,” Ryouga surprised them both by saying. “Ranma can come along.”
 
“What? Are you sure you want him to?” Akane asked dubiously.
 
Ryouga searched for a reason Ranma shouldn’t come and came up blank. Well, actually not quite blank, but she had a reason for being so nice. “I said Ranma could go with us. I didn’t say anything about *him*.
 
It took Akane about zero seconds flat to understand what she meant. “Oh, I see,” she said, trying not to laugh. “Well, then, I suppose I have nothing against that. We can buy *her* some new clothes too then, right?”
 
Ranma, nursing the rather large bump he now sported on the top of his head, scowled at them. “I was trying to do you a favor, pi - er, Ryouga.” He had almost called her pig-boy out of habit.
 
“And I’m doing you a favor by convincing Akane to let you come go with us.”
 
Ranma glared.
 
***
 
The appointment with Dr. Tofu went well. He was surprised to see Ryouga up and well so suddenly and soon, but couldn’t find anything wrong with her. Ryouga, for her part, was shocked to find out that she had been out of it for three days, suffering from exhaustion and malnutrition. That explained her erratic behavior when she had first arrived, at least. Dr. Tofu let her go with instructions to keep a low activity level – namely no fighting, at least for a while – and to stay away from heavy foods. With an otherwise clean bill of heath, the doctor let her go.
 
Ranma – still in male form – was waiting out side the office, determined not to let them splash him before they went out. Therefore, he easily dodged the predictable bucket that Akane threw at him upon her exit, and warily watched as Ryouga followed. However, the other girl was staring at her feet, seemingly lost in thought, and more importantly didn’t seem to have any source of cold water on her.
 
Ryouga looked at him with a neutral expression. “Ranma, I’m sorry.”
 
Ranma’s eyebrows went into his hairline. “Nani?”
 
During the moment in which he was to surprised to react, Ryouga calmly took the water pistol out of her pocket and shot him… ahem, her, right between the eyes.
 
From behind limp, wet bangs, Ranma-chan glared. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately, she reflected. “You are going to pay for that, Ryouga.”
 
Ryouga smirked arrogantly, proving that yes, guys have *nothin’* on girls when it comes to the ‘holier than thou’ look. Her face then went serious, but not before she gave a sly smile and winked. She didn’t know why she winked. She blocked the memory of ever having winked out of her brain milliseconds after having done it. But the image was forever burned in the brain of a certain pig-tailed pseudo-girl, whose eyes grew to saucer-like proportions, forgetting for a while the mechanics of blinking. It can’t really be blamed on Ryouga, however. She was in the habit of smirking arrogantly, particularly when she had just beaten – in whatever manner – Ranma, and the sly smile usually worked to antagonize his rival, even if it was a friendly rivalry. As for the wink – that never happened, right?
 
If Ryouga had remembered the gesture, much less realized the effect she had on the shell-shocked Ranma, she would quite likely have repeated the events of chapter one with a considerably less happy ending. But she didn’t, luckily, because that would be a very, very bad thing. As it was, all she did was say innocently, “Are we going to go shopping now?” She turned to Akane now, looking normal again. That is, a little downcast but cheered by having gotten Ranma with the water gun.
 
Akane blinked. What the… that was weird…er than usual, even. “Umm… yeah. Hey, maybe we should stop for lunch, first? I’m a bit hungry…” she nudged Ranma, who suddenly remembered how to blink and breathe again.
 
“Yeah, lunch sounds good,” Ryouga agreed affably.
 
***
 
Ranma showed considerable annoyance at having to spend the entire day as a girl, but it was more for show than anything else. She had to show *something*, and it was better than the alternative.
 
Being nice to Ryouga was once thing; she was her friend, after all. Being openly worried about her was another. She was Ranma Saotome, and that wasn’t her style.
 
But she was worried about the pink-haired girl. Not that she thought Ryouga was still physically unwell; everyone else was concerned about how weak she had been when she had first arrived, how Dr. Tofu had diagnosed her with extreme exhaustion and the early stages of starvation. Ryouga was tougher than that; it wasn’t a stretch at all to think that she could recover in three days, and to hell with the theory that the girl’s body was more frail. Ranma had never had any trouble healing in female form; true, her endurance may go down, but her recuperation rate never did; if anything, it sped up to compensate.
 
What she was worried about was Ryouga’s, well, mental health. Even *he* was never the most stable person on earth. Not that I blame him or anything; it had to be tough never being able to stay in one place for very long, never even being able to go back anywhere except by sheer luck. Hell, being cursed as a pig almost threw him over the edge, not that it wouldn’t make most people a little bonkers. I think the only reason he didn’t eventually go berserk and demolish a city or two was because of Akane and ‘P-chan’. She snorted softly to herself. Did Ryouga really think I kept that secret because it was fun to taunt him with it? Well, it was – but I really didn’t want him to flip one day and kill someone for eating a pork bun. At least as P-chan, someone welcomed him home. Ranma was a little surprised at her own chain of thoughts. Heh. Who knew? And Ryouga’s behavior recently had been very out of character. Wanting to be killed by, rather than defeating, Ranma, for one. I can get why she wanted me to do it, at least – it’s kind of sick, but it would bring a sense of completion to the business, and she did try to take me down with her. But why would she want to die without having avenged herself by killing that Herb guy? Ranma wanted desperately to ask, but knew that the telling of that story would have to wait. When Ryouga had told her the original tale, a fierce emotion had burned in her eyes, something so dark and intense that even after three days Ranma still shuddered at the memory.
 
Ranma didn’t let any of her reactions to such musings show, of course, for previously stated (and probably stupid) reasons. They, having eaten a lunch consisting of submarine sandwiches, were now at the clothing store. A woman’s clothing store. However much Ryouga disliked the idea, her figure was just too, well, female, much like Ranma-chan’s own, to fit well in men’s clothing. But they still managed to find suitably ‘masculine’ clothing for her. Ranma refrained from pointing out that it was useless; personal experience with a cursed body had shown her that no matter what style of clothing she wore, it couldn’t hide the supermodel-like figure. She would have mentioned it, actually, if it weren’t for the fact that Ryouga herself did so every time she stepped into the changing booth.
 
Eventually, though, they had three sets of clothing for her, all of very modest cut and of non-skirted nature. Then… they started shopping for Ranma-chan. Who nearly ran screaming down the streets as they showed her a remarkable variety of dresses, ranging from a bubble-gum pink, frilled sundress with a parade of bunnies circling the skirt to a very revealing, very… erm… *formfitting*, shiny black leather minidress. Ranma didn’t know where they had found it in the otherwise innocuous store. Her only comment about it was, however, a snide remark that she could wear it if she wanted to, while Akane “wouldn’t be able to squeeze her wide hips in”. That had the much-desired effect of ending the shopping trip, even if Ranma would’ve preferred to leave by his own power rather than being dragged out after being knocked unconscious by Akane’s hyperdimensional mallet.
 
A splash of hot water woke Ranma up. After a short argument with Akane – short only because Ryouga proved to be a remarkably good mediator – they started back to the dojo.
 
***
 
Ryouga found herself both cheered and depressed by the trip. On the one side, it was nice going out with people who actually acted like her friends, and not having to worry about getting lost simply walking into a room, and on the other it felt as if she were resigning herself to being a girl, something she had tried to die rather than doing. The only thing that kept her in a good mood was the knowledge that soon, as soon as she could convince them that she was in fact healthy, they would go looking for the cure. She knew that Ranma would help her, because it could possibly be a cure for his own curse.
 
So she took it with good humor when Kasumi herded her back into bed when she got back, and chided Ranma and Akane for keeping her out so long. No, rather than protesting she just nodded and headed back into the storage room, and examined at her reflection in the mirror for a long time.
 
She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail to keep it out of her eyes, and was dressed in the other one of her old outfits that Kasumi had altered – only she hadn’t finished, and the pants were untouched. They looked ridiculously baggy on her slender legs, and she’d had to roll up nearly a foot of each leg, but she approved of this more than the better-fitting set. With the pants like that, she had been able to tuck the shirt in so it didn’t look like a short dress, and by making the top baggy around her chest, the outfit managed to hide a great deal of her figure. Now, if it weren’t for the ridiculous color of her hair…
 
She unintentionally followed Kasumi’s instructions and fell asleep sitting in front of the mirror, slumped forward with her forehead rested against its reflection.
 
***
 
~Mordain
 
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