Ranma no Zettai Kareshi – Thickening Plot

by Anchoku

Rights to Ranma ½ belong to its creator, Takahashi Rumiko. Various other rights are held by Shonen Sunday Comics publisher Shogukukan, Kitty Film and Fuji TV.

Rights to Zettai Kareshi, a.k.a. Absolute Boyfriend, belong to its creator, Watase Yuu. Various other rights are held by Shoujo Comic publisher Shogukukan, and Fuji TV.

Rights to Futaba-kun Change! belong to its creator, Aro Hiroshi. Various other rights are held by Monthly Shounen Jump publisher Shueisha.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

While her fiancé was having a formal meal with his prospective fiancée, someone else padded quietly along the covered path toward her destination. A single step lead up to the broad engawa with its fusuma, the only entrance, centered to face her path. Supper had been a subdued affair. The food was fine, as always but there had been leftovers despite the adjustment in quantity. The flavor of hot rice and steamed dried mackerel lingered pleasantly in her mouth though she'd had a cup of strong green tea after her meal.

Two steps up and two steps forward brought her to the entryway of a place she'd known and revered since childhood. She straightened her dougi before sliding the door open. Cultural formalities such as washing before entering were never observed here as they were in many prouder schools. The smell of wood and sweat greeted her as she slipped inside and closed the door. Across the hardwood floor, darkly colored with age and finely polished, yet bearing scores and other injuries both young and old, sat the tier upon which dignitaries of old were supposed to sit. She doubted any such lord had ever sat upon that low dais. Her mother, grandparents and other ancestors often sat there, though, on days of the year set aside for remembrance. Lately, one other occasioned that place of honor.

"Akane-chan! My favorite student! Come to help an old man fold his underwear?" Happosai jovially asked looking up from the pile he was sorting.

She clucked her tongue and sighed, making her way across the floor in her bare feet. The wizened old pervert sniffed the crotch of a modestly-cut pink pair of underwear and quirked an eyebrow at her. "Master, do I really have a chance?" she asked, thinking about her fiancé. Doubt ran rampant through her mind. She was not a stupid person. She knew there was a chance it could go either way. "We've argued so much, so much…" She still could not bear to face the heartache of losing the one person she had grown to rely upon to another woman who happened to have the right tool for the job. He motioned for her to come and partake of his eccentric wisdom.

The old man waited for her to approach and sit before the tokonoma before he responded. Perhaps it was just to insure he could look her in the eye at the same level. Perhaps it was so he could better trace her cleavage with his eyes. It was hard to tell with such an inscrutable old teacher. "I was in love, once," he said with a sigh and a far-off look. "She was a pretty young thing working as a servant in a hot springs inn somewhere in the Kanto area around here. I forgot where but it was close by."

"You were? I mean, you were, Master?" Akane asked, well aware of her tenuous position as student.

The bald old gnomish man nodded, deep in thought, apparently reminiscing over the ancient event. She wondered what era Happosai might have been young enough to love. He was already a freak when Cologne was young and out to kill him for stealing Joketsu treasures, undergarments, and taking other liberties not well explained by either ancient master.

Happosai seemed to wake from a dream of the past and his gaze fell upon her with a startling weight as if his tiny shriveled frame were made entirely of iron. He was in serious sensei-mode, now. "She washed the baths, cleaned the rooms, did laundry and beat the futons working hard every day. When I tried to visit her, she had no time. Her boss, the innkeeper's son, kept her running all the time."

"Did you- Were you able to see her?"

"Of course not!" Happosai said in annoyance. "The innkeeper's son was keeping her busy on purpose because he secretly loved her and knew she'd come visit me on the first day she had off. She had a beautiful rack, too! I'm sure he wanted to touch it."

"So… did you go visit her at work, instead?"

"I tried but she turned me away. She said if I wasn't a paying customer, she could get fired for speaking with me instead of doing her work," he said, sounding disgusted.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Akane answered, not knowing quite what to make of the one-sided love story and hoping it had nothing to do with her own situation.

"That's all right," he said, nonchalantly waving off my half-hearted attempt at concern, "I called a few of my biker friends and they got the innkeeper's son drunk at Jito's in town so I could make out with her at the inn." Blinking a couple of times, she tried to reconcile Happosai's ice-age love story with the newest bit of information. She couldn't but the pieces were coming together in a disturbing fashion, anyway. He went on to add, "Of course, the pinch-faced mother of that brat kept poking her nose into our business and the other girls, bless their hearts, helped stall her while we fled from room to room. I had to stand behind a dusty rug on the upstairs balcony and try not to sneeze while the evil innkeeper reprimanded the girls showing them how hard to beat it."

"Master, I… I think that was on television last night," she admitted, hoping to put as quick an end to the story as possible.

His eyes unfocused, momentarily, before asking, "Really?" She nodded slowly. "I hope it's on, tonight, again."

"W-why don't you go check?" she suggested. "Otousan or Kasumi-neesan might know."

He got to his feet and she almost had to tilt her head back a fraction to keep his contemplative face in view. Pulling out his pipe, he looked over his stash laying partially organized across the tokonoma. "Check out the pink one, there," he said. "I think a boy wore it two or three washes ago. See if you can tell. You think that show will be on, again?" he asked, looking somewhat hopeful.

She drew her eyes from what was, in the master's eyes, a partially-polluted purloined pink panty and nodded. "Maybe," she allowed. He nodded back, stuck his unlit pipe in his mouth and stepped off the dais before turning to face his holy monument. He slapped his hands together twice and offered a thankfully silent prayer. She watched patiently until he'd walked across the floor to the entrance.

'Sure, it will be on, again,' she thought after he left and shut the fusuma behind, 'next Saturday.'

Before her was a pile of panties. 'I need practice,' she thought, reaching for the pink one her master had been inspecting. 'I wonder whose these are?' Turning the pair over in her hands she tried to read the residual ki in it. One of the secrets of the Tendo school of Indiscriminate Grappling was using ki and chi from other people. Contrary to popular belief, Master Happosai did not get a charge from panties. There was no energy transfer. A non-living object like Ranma's boxers did not have enough energy in residual ki to strengthen her but it did have residual ki in a trace amount. Identifying that ki and using it as a motivational catalyst was the secret of the Master's style.

She knew Ryouga and Ranma both used emotion as a focus. Happosai used the attraction he felt toward beautiful women as his focus. Akane, too, was learning to derive motivation from a focus, Tend-style. Her master drew upon his inner strength from contact with pretty ladies but the opposite was also true for contact with everyone else, especially older or ugly women and males of all classes. They de-motivated him. That he could tell gender from a touch was testament to his skill in the art.

Using ki as a focus, a catalyst, was the first step in her family's half of the school. "Too bad that isn't enough," she muttered to herself. The second step was to use her chi and the third was to learn to use that of others. For that, she would need a training partner. Her thoughts immediately turned toward a certain pigtailed person while staring at the pink panties in her hands with its almost undetectable trace of ki. She could not, yet, even identify any but her master's touch and tossed it back into the pile.

The reality was that Ranma tended to react badly to Happosai's attention. So did Akane, herself, and it was no wonder: just being used without a please or thank you might not even win over a Kuno. Nabiki certainly never got anywhere with Tatewaki using those methods. No, she needed to win Ranma's heart and that meant doing more than just a Joketsu-grade hug – something else she was forced to admit never worked.

'Begging Ranma, or anyone, will only go so far,' she decided. 'I need to beg and make Ranma beg. He has to want to marry me just as much as I want him.' She bowed to the tokonoma just as her master did before reaching for the narrow panel providing access to her stash underneath. Setting it aside, she bent to look and found what she was hoping for amongst the piles of instructional doujinshi and other pornography; volume four of her new favorite manga, Versailles no Hana. It told story of a Lady of the French aristocracy who was a tomboy, just like her but schooled in courtly behavior. She had a lot of women interested simply because she was a better man than many other men.

This reminded her of Ranma, however, and Akane wondered if she didn't fit the role of Francois' male friend, Andy. Andy often played a support role just as Akane so frequently did for Ranma. "I wish I had the right parts to make both of Ranma happy,' she thought with a sigh, 'but I don't.' She stared at her hands holding the popular reprint. 'These hands are all I have. They have to be good enough!'

Determination grew within the core of her being. "Practice," she whispered, "I need practice. I can't afford to be clumsy and get it wrong when Ranma comes back. I need to be perfect so I can win him and win her!" That left only the nearly insurmountable problem of how to get that practice. 'How?' she wondered. Ranma was a boy who turned into a girl. He may be a total jock but he could switch between a boy jock and a girl jock from one moment to the next. If there was one secret Akane knew about her fiancé, it was that one.

Saotome Ranma was not, and perhaps had never been, a typical boy. Kuno Tatewaki and most, if not all, of the young men she knew at school were typical boys. They dreamed of the Masked Rider, giant robots, samurai versus ninja wars and other militaristic scenarios. She was also forced to admit, over the past week, that Ranma also could have lived out what she suspected every man dreamed of; the life of a powerful lord or wealthy prince, the life of a harem master. Realization that he had not, and not taken advantage where it was so plainly offered, meant something. Again, Kuno Tatewaki had openly proclaimed his fantasy involving herself and Ranma's female form. She had absolutely no doubt what the third-year sempai would do given the opportunity.

Her fiancé had it all, it seemed, everything Akane was sure beyond doubt a boy or man would want: strength, skill, good looks, and women throwing themselves at him. How could she not be jealous? How could anyone not be jealous? That was near the crux of the matter. Ranma had everything Akane wanted. He travelled and learned his family style while she had been forced to attend ordinary elementary and middle schools. His father provided several young women to engage him to while hers just waited for Ranma to show up. Ranma gets to choose while he was her only real prospect.

The face of her old friend, Shinnosuke, came to mind followed by Kumon Ryu and Tatewaki Kuno. 'I suppose I could have gone after them,' she reluctantly admitted. Reality was a harsh master. She flipped, idly, through her manga. The pages were drawn with care to show scenes from nineteenth-century France. Extreme wealth and poverty coexisted with invisible, yet insurmountable, lines drawn between classes. The Saotome family was nearly penniless, she knew, yet her father was fairly well off. Still, they were only another middle-class family. What might these Shimeru people be like? 'They must be more wealthy than we are. Why are they interested in Ranma? He'd already be marrying up to get into my family. Why would they want someone from so far beneath their class?'

Akane puzzled over the question until she finally remembered Daikoku Kaori, heiress of the school of Martial Arts Takeout Delivery. 'Are the Shimeru interested in Ranma's skill as an Indiscriminate Grappling student?' She bit her lower lip considering the possibility. The Joketsu tribe were not the only ones after Ranma for this reason. Even Kuonji Ukyou was engaged to Ranma supposedly because he was learning to fight. Thinking of the okonomiyaki chef, she remembered Ukyou, too, had grown up on the road, much like Ranma. In fact, of all the people she knew, Akane thought Ukyou would understand Ranma best. 'She was raised to be a boy by her father – raised by her father, alone, in fact. They even talk alike except that she sounds more like a Kansai person.'

Rising to her feet, an idea glimmered and a rough plan began to form. 'Ukyou – she would know Ranma best, maybe well enough to be able to pretend she was him. And she's a girl.'

Without stopping to think about it, she packed her manga back into the hidden space under the tokonoma and replaced the narrow front panel. She offered another prayer to her ancestors, mother and Happosai's half-sorted and folded acquisitions before standing to head out and enact her half-formed plan.

"Onee-chan, I'm going out for a while!" she called toward the tea room after entering the house and headed directly for the genkan and her sandals.

"Akane-chan?" her sister returned, the question plain in her voice.

"I'm heading out. I'll be back later," she answered.

"When will you be back?" Kasumi asked approaching through the hall toward her. Kasumi's voice was as full of concern as always were but her eyes hard like velvet-wrapped diamonds. Akane knew her sister kept close tabs on everyone. She was the mistress of the house. Her questions were pointed and her comments were like orders. Kasumi could see through her intent if given the chance so Akane turned and opened the door.

"I might be out late but probably not. I don't know. I'll see you later, big sister. Don't wait up for me, though," Akane said tapping the toes of her sandals one after the other to seat the thong. She didn't wait for an answer and shut the door behind her heading toward the front gate. Honestly, she did not think anything would come of the vague plan she considered but felt a wash of relief and liberation over the idea of being out of the family compound on her own for the first time since last weekend, if not before.

Her thoughts turned toward Ukyou. 'How do I ask her?' she wondered. 'I should just tell her, I suppose.' Farther along the path to U-chan's Akane decided her request might be better considered if she were to try one of the chi techniques she'd practiced. Blood began to flow in a now-familiar pattern warming her in preparation.

The restaurant was busy, though. Every table that Akane saw through the window was filled. Nevertheless, she pulled open the door and entered taking note of the closing time. She would wait and plan.

"Tendo-sama!" Konatsu exclaimed meeting her just inside. He was pretty she realized and wondered if he, too, might be able to help understand Ranma and, better yet, help her train.

"I can't stay, Konatsu-san," she said, "but I would like some time with you and Ukyou-san when you're done with work later, tonight. When do you think you'll be free?"

"Ukyou-sama and I usually finish around nine-thirty," he said smiling. "You can come by around then."

She nodded with a smile of her own. "That would be perfect," she replied and meant it. That gave her time to plan. Akane headed back out for a stroll to mull the possibilities.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Ranma clutched Baimei, her fingers spread across his back, and he twitched. 'He got that kink in his back 'cause o' me,' she thought, remembering the hours of talk they'd had in the hotel's tea garden. The pair of them stood in their swimsuits. Baimei's was a daring cut for a man consisting of a stretchy black half-tank and black bikini. It looked more conservative on his female form than it did on his male. 'I wonder where I can get one o' these,' she thought, relaxing her embrace. The room was quiet, now. No sounds could be heard from either parents' rooms or those of Baimei's troublesome brothers. "Hey," she said, looking up into Baimei's chagrinned face, "If you're gonna be my fiancé, you gotta get used to embarrassing stuff happening like that." Ranma grinned up at him, fully aware she was even more abashed at having been caught in an embrace with a handsome bikini-clad man while all she had on was her yellow one-piece with Mizuko swoosh on the right hip just in from the red side panels. They were essentially in their underwear.

To her surprise, he hugged her, again, but this time he descended to capture her mouth in a kiss. Emotional need, rather than physical, seemed to drive him. Baimei was tired from a long day, she knew, but it still felt right. She closed her eyes, wrapped her arms around his neck and responded as well as she knew how, learning every moment. 'Not as good as pervy-retard-Kyouya,' she absently analyzed, 'but okay.'

When they finally parted, he sighed and reverted to his female form. "I promise you, Ranma-chan, I promise to be your best fiancé. I want to marry you so bad," she said, ending in a whisper, which was surprising in itself because of the fervor with which he began.

Ranma looked into Baimei's eyes, now substantially closer to her level, yet still more than a head taller. She saw Baimei's determination and her heart went out for the gangly older woman. Baimei took her seriously, that much was certain. Smiling, she leaned forward and planted another kiss on her now female fiancée. "I understand. Thanks," she said, never one for complicated sentences.

A look of hesitation and uncertainty clouded Baimei's eyes and she said, "Ranma-chan, this is only an omiai, a meeting. I think our parents have to agree, first."

Ranma picked up on the unspoken point of contention. More sternly than she felt and more confident than was, perhaps, merited, she told her in no uncertain terms, "I been engaged for a bowl of rice, a fish and two pickles. If I say you're my fiancée, too, then you are. We'll just have t' kick some old-fart-ass if they argue." She received another kiss for that.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Saotome Genma was in panda-form, wearing oversized tropical-print swim trunks and sunglasses he didn't need at night, lounging by the lighted pool outside with Shimeru Baiko, Baijo, and Nikorin. The first two were currently female and the last was male. Despite having most of the pool to themselves that evening, the day had not gone the way he wanted.

First, he risked the opportunity to inform the Shimeru family of his child's problem with cats mainly so his wife couldn't blow up at him and demand his head while they were in front of the hosts but also partly because they would definitely need to know. Nodoka had not been pleased and settled into a quiet, dignified rage. She was up in their room and he was down here with explicit instructions to stay there, forever, if that was what it took. She would calm, eventually, enough to forgive him or ask him to slit his belly.

As if that was insufficient to dampen his mood, when he reached his room, he could tell Ranma wasn't in his own next door. A casual walk down the hall two doors proved his child was in Shimeru Baimei's suspiciously adjacent room. The pair of them seemed to be getting along alright. Since then, he'd been waiting, with Baimei's parents, for the children's arrival. The decisions would all be made tonight unless he missed his guess.

The door from the hotel to the enclosed pool area opened and out strode his daughter wearing a hotel bathrobe. Shimeru Baimei held the door for her and wore a light but opaque wrap around her waist, covering the lower half. They both looked relaxed and happy. That changed to guilt and nervousness the moment they spotted their parents setting off mental alarms all around the table.

Genma got out of his stretched out lounge chair and lumbered over to them. It was days like these that made him wish pandas were just a touch better at walking on their hind legs. The stress from these past months wore on his hips, knees, legs and back but he resolutely refused to walk like a panda. He was a man. Let the other Jusenkyou victims accommodate their curses; he would not.

His son, though, now that was a problem. Genma pulled out a sign and quickly scribbled out a greeting under the combined fluorescent, incandescent and sodium lamps lighting the pool area that night. "Good evening, Baimei-san. Hello, ungrateful child."

"Shut up, Pop," Ranma replied. "Mei-chan, this is my old man, Saotome Genma-otoupandasan. His Jusenkyou curse looks like this."

Genma sniffed the air making it sound like a snort of mild offense. What he found on Ranma and on her breath turned his legs to jelly.

Shimeru Baimei bowed deeply, as if she knew an important line had been crossed and it had been crossed. "Saotome-sama," she said, "thank you very much for bringing Ranma-sama to this omiai. I… I cannot thank you enough."

Ranma, he noticed looked stunned and grew a blush but he chuffed and sniffed while writing a suitably polite response to the greeting. The more important task was to bow back to the young woman and sniff the air she'd just spoken with. It only took a moment to confirm the worst of his fears. He pulled out a sign he'd been saving for the last hour and hit his daughter over the head with it. "Go do one hundred laps," he signed on her cranium.

"Ow! Stupid panda. Okay, okay," she complained but there was no real resistance. In fact, she and Baimei, who left with her giving him a final bow, seemed all too happy to comply. He walked back to his lounge chair watching as Ranma shucked her bathrobe, tossing it at Baimei, and leapt high in the air to dive cleanly into the pool's deep side. Baimei, for her part, folded up the bathrobe, took off her wrap and dropped them on an open lounge chair to hurry toward the pool after Ranma giving her parents a welcoming wave. When the kids were in the water, they chatted briefly before Ranma began her laps. Now, he had to talk with the Shimeru family.

Genma picked up the carafe of hot water he had asked the pool attendant to fetch from the kitchen and put down the jumbo sunglasses. Holding his trunks, he poured himself back to normal and set the carafe back on the plastic table by his chair so he could pull the drawstrings tight. "Shimeru-san," he said tightly, "Can I have a word with you?" Baijo nodded her permission and stood from her own lounge chair. "You can all hear what I want to say," he added to include the grandmother and father, if those were the right terms.

Gathering a few chairs around the small table and its umbrella, the group of parents tried to look as casual as their children. Once the four of them were seated in a loose circle, he pushed his glasses up his nose and fetched a handkerchief from where he kept his signs. "My nose as a panda is very talented," he mumbled just loud enough they could hear while he made a production out of protecting his bald head from the cooling night air. "Please do not tell the children how I know. It's one of the ways I keep track of their activities." Baiko nodded.

Thinking hard about how to present the information, he finally said, "I believe our children are sexually compatible." The three Shimeru's eyes widened. "I have no doubt," he added. 'Let them read between the lines. I'm sure whatever they can guess is still short of the truth. That brought up another point, though. "I know you folk also have very strong male and female scents. My nose says you two smell like men and you like a woman," he added picking out the two females and one male gender. "I don't know if it affected Ranma but it might have."

Nikorin tensed giving the Shimeru away. The two women tried to look nonchalant but he knew how to read people. 'They knew, too, so it's a family trait.' Genma wondered if he should try waiting them out, make them come to him, but ended up weighing the odds differently. 'It's likely Ranma will seriously consider marriage and I'd guess Baimei will feel the same.' He glanced over to the pool to see Ranma lazily taking her time at it. What really interested him was the way she and Baimei had a hard time taking their eyes off each other despite Ranma doing laps.

Baimei's eyes found his and Genma was forced to cover his tracks. "Faster, boy! You call that swimming?" he yelled. Ranma kicked harder and picked up speed, finally putting some effort into her Australian crawl.

He settled back into his seat. "She's a very good swimmer, Saotome-san," Nikorin complimented.

"We swam together to China and back. Of course he's good," he retorted. His enthusiasm waned knowing the gods had him under their thumbs and he sighed. "Something will have to be worked out between the Saotome and Tendo families. They care a great deal about Ranma and their youngest is working through her issues as we speak. She will be dangerous."

"How so?" Baiko asked, shooting him an intense, questioning look.

"Tendo Akane has issues with her temper and an odd fear of sex. Her father, my old partner and a master in perverted martial arts, and our own master are training her. The girl was wound so tight to begin with, if she snaps…" he muttered.

Nikorin gasped, "Murder?"

"Huh? No, well, probably not," he qualified. "I'm thinking more like serial rapist but that's not the problem," Genma admitted and brushed the idea aside as inconsequential to the real issue. "She and Ranma were, and maybe still are, close. So are our families. I'm pretty sure she's going to want a shot at Ranma, too."

"What do you recommend?" Baiko asked.

Genma dithered a moment before deciding, "Consider your child engaged to mine. I need to talk with my wife about this, tonight, too. I have my reservations about Tendo Akane but she's the heir of her father's branch and he's finally teaching her his style. I think she loves Ranma but if she can't step up to the competition from your daughter, I'm willing to break the agreement with Tendo-kun. I want my child teaching Indiscriminate Grappling with a Tendo but I also want my child happy."

"And your wife? She seemed upset after supper," Baijo asked.

"As long as there're grandchildren and Ranma is happy, she'll be happy," he replied thoughtfully.

"There was another young man we saw at the Mushi's. What is his relationship?" Baiko asked.

Genma shook his head in dismissal and was about to answer but paused, mid-breath. 'The robot boy may be gone but it left a mark on my girl.' He rubbed his jaw in contemplation, finally giving an answer. "He wasn't human and Ranma knew it. I don't… I don't think my kid had any illusions about being able to have a family with him. It still hurt her when he died, though." He turned to the pool to make sure she was still working out at least a little bit and saw his daughter dutifully continuing her laps across the pool in a way no professional swimmer could manage. "He enjoys attention," he said, turning his own attention back to Baiko. "Her first boyfriend was unnaturally attentive and obedient. If you want my daughter for your son, keep that in mind. With the right motivation and the right handling, Ranma will serve your family well."

"The young man we saw is dead?" Baijo asked, eyebrows rising in surprise.

Genma nodded solemnly. "Natural causes. He had a very short lifespan. He was not human but neither the boy, nor I, can explain further." The Shimeru at the table spared a solemn moment for Ranma's first boyfriend despite their obvious curiosity.

"One last question, Saotome-san," Baijo said, ducking her head. "I am very sorry ask such a personal thing but, is your daughter fertile? The magic, the curse, is unusual so… I assure you Baimei is, when a man, that is. The family doctors tell me he is quite normal."

He wavered between answering, and not, before admitting something he doubted anyone but he and his son knew. The engagement to Baimei was real, however, as real as the Tendo one, at least, and, even though they had never asked, he would answer truthfully if they did. "Ranma tries to hide it and does pretty well, considering. I don't think even the Tendo girls know that Ranma finally synchronized with them four months ago. He tries to avoid cold water and changes back into a young man as soon as possible." Baijo and Baiko subtly relaxed into their patio chairs around the table. Baijo gave the barest nod. He turned his attention toward Nikorin, who had a troubled look but not an argumentative one. To him, he added, "She should go into heat near the end of next week if I remember the last round in the house so I hope the kids are careful."

"Well, we taught Baimei to be responsible so I don't think there'll be children for some time; at least not until they're out of school and ready for a family," Nikorin quibbled, returning the topic to a safer one he had more of an opinion on.

"Then I'd better get Ranma on the pill," he replied, not sure if he meant what he said. One thing he was sure of, "They aren't going to wait and accidents happen."

"Just how sure are you, Saotome-san?" Baiko asked, her eyes out over the pool. They watched Ranma cut through the water producing a remarkably strong wake while Baiko's granddaughter, Baimei, paddled lazily on a float-board staring at his daughter's ass.

"I'm absolutely sure," he replied. 'Let them try and interpret that any differently.' He let his assertion sink in for a minute before rising and making polite excuses to leave. He left them with an injunction to get to know Ranma better, and fast. The requirements of his family were simple: happy child, martial arts, and grandchildren, all of them top priority.

On his way up the lift, Genma watched the numbered circles light up as a distraction from the encounter to come but it came all too soon. He knocked lightly on the door to their room. "Nodoka," he called softly, "we need to talk. It's about Ranma." He felt her presence approach but she didn't answer. 'Probably peeking out the peep-hole,' he decided, though the lens was just as dark now as it was before he knocked. "We need to talk about her omiai and engagement," he explained and promptly gave gimself a mental kick to the head for letting her know he'd already decided.

The door opened to a darkened room. His wife was in her yukata. In a harsh whisper, she demanded, "How could you?"

"I didn't read past the first two pages!" he replied in defense of his foolishness. It was a poor defense and it appeared it wouldn't help his case given the way she crossed her arms. He was very glad at that moment she left the family blade home.

"You waited until we were in front of the Shimeru at our son's omiai to tell me?" she said with full, feminine skepticism.

"I knew you'd want to kill me," he blurted out, proving once again he was Ranma's father.

"I might just do that," she replied, proving once again she was Ranma's mother. "Now, please explain the comment about the engagement," she ordered, stepping out of the way so he could enter the room.

Genma walked over to the bed and sat on the corner near the end. It was unmade, confirming Nodoka was fresh out of it. 'I'll bet she was worrying herself into a frenzy,' he guessed. His wife approached the bed and climbed in covering herself back up. There was no invitation in that action. She had taken several of the pillows to prop her head up, too. He didn't have to work hard at looking miserable and disappointed but he came up from the pool for a reason.

"Nodoka," he began, "how do you feel about the match so far?" he asked.

She looked down at her hands where they lay over their bedspread. Her hands fidgeted, thin fingers twining with each other while her head and heart knitted her thoughts. "I think he's a nice young man," she finally decided.

"Do you think he's… good for Ranma?"

"I… maybe. They got along well at first, didn't they?" Nodoka asked. He nodded and scratched his chin. "They were pretty quiet over supper, weren't they?"

"Mm, hm," he murmured and was mildly pleased to find he had driven her to exasperation with his questions, and innuendo. He would much rather have her be curious and frustrated in anticipation than angry and depressed.

"Something happened, didn't it," she accused. He let the moment drag out until she jumped to an erroneous happy conclusion. "Did he ask her to marry him?"

He pushed his glasses up with a finger and smirked. "You know that agonizing hour of posturing we endured?" Nodoka nodded slowly, eager for the next bits of news. He loved dragging things out with her. She was incredibly cute that way. "Well, when we came back and I headed down to the pool, did you hear anything in Ranma's room next door?" She blinked trying to remember and looked back with the obvious question written on her face. "That was because Ranma wasn't there," he said in his wise old kempo master voice and enjoyed the sour pout on her face. After she recovered, he added, "Of course, when I got to the pool, he wasn't there, either. I knew he wouldn't be because…"

"Yes," she prompted.

Outright curiosity and excitement were on her face for his personal viewing pleasure. He enjoyed it to the fullest extent for an instant of time and answered before she could slip back into frustration. "… she was in Shimeru Baimei's room." He loved the way her eyes widened.

"Do you suppose- Were they- You don't think-" Nodoka gasped out her fragmented sentences but there was only one thing on her mind. She covered her mouth with both hands. Her eyes begged him for confirmation.

Genma turned to face his lovely wife and took off his bandanna and glasses while he crawled over to whisper his observations into Nodoka's ear. She squealed in joy and kicked her legs under the sheets in excitement. He continued to relay the discussions with Shimeru Baijo, Nikorin and Baiko along with what he saw by the pool.

Later, she took his clothes off for him.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

'Bo-ring, bo-ring, bo-ring,' the litany ran through her head as she crawled through the water one short lap at a time. It may have been boring to her, but to Baimei, who paddled around a bit before joining her parents when Ranma's own father left, it must have been so much worse. All Baimei did was watch her, obviously waiting for her to finish the hundred laps. Ranma was determined not to let her grow bored from waiting and stretched to make a real workout of the task.

Well, stretched wasn't exactly the correct word. Ranma did as her father taught and used ki to assist her speed by adding a measure of control to whorls of the water she cut through. It compounded the work but also tore through the limits on speed the water placed upon her. Ki could be used to extend her reach and cut the water's drag. She did this, now, and ripped through the tiny fourteen meter long pool with only six strokes per lap. Most of her time was spent turning around between laps but it wouldn't be long before she had her hundred in. Of course, she didn't exactly know when she'd hit her hundredth lap. Ranma had lost count the first time around the fifteen mark. 'I'll just do a couple extra an' call it good,' she decided.

After a while, Ranma figured she must have reached a hundred and slowed down. A couple of breast strokes took her to the shallow side and she glided around three kids yelling excitedly and into the one meter deep area before letting her feet touch the tiled bottom of the pool. There were fewer children than when she started. Those that were left seemed to be challenging each other to dive to the bottom and hold their breath. She smiled at their antics remembering her own diving experiences. In front of her was a broad curve of steps leading up with two railings splayed wide dividing the steps into thirds. She picked one to help steady herself while gravity reasserted its hold on her during the climb out.

Ranma ran her index fingers along the inside of her suit's leg openings to resettle it when Baimei surprised her with a warm towel and a fresh fuzzy bathrobe. "Come on over, Ranma-chan," she said with a wide smile and led her, still dripping and wiping down with the towel, to the Shimeru table.

"That was awesome!" she heard one red-faced guy yell from amidst a knot of young men at another table where they were sipping amber-colored liquor from tumblers filled with ice. She waved and grinned at them. Yes, she was awesome.

Ranma followed Baimei over to her parent's table while drying off with the towel. She found a hidden benefit in the hotel's Western theme. The night was beginning to cool and, while she just finished a workout, knew she would want to be warm and dry inside that big fluffy robe Baimei was carrying. The typical yukata would not be quite so cozy this time of year. The two of them were soon around the pool. Baijo, who was currently Baimei's mother, had already acquired a fifth chair from the next table and was motioning for her to sit.

Suddenly unsure of what to do, she settled on formality. Ranma bowed to the parents and grandparent. "Pleased to meet you," she said. 'Oops, duh,' she thought bringing her hands together in front much too late.

They all returned the bow from, if more shallowly, from where they stood or sat along with the greeting. Ranma was aware Baimei had an arm around her waist. It reminded her of her own possessive behavior toward Akane when she was male but there the similarity ended. Ranma was not the least bit offended by possessive women and kind of liked the feeling. Akane, on the other hand, would probably do something violent and uncomfortable if, after a good chewing-out, he didn't take the hint.

Her new fiancée ushered her to the chair her mother, Baijo, indicated and the older woman asked, "Would you like something to drink, Ranma-chan? I was just going to get some cold soda. Maybe Baimei and I could bring something back for you."

"I can get it," Ranma quickly offered before realizing she had no money, much less a pocket to hold it in.

While she was feeling sheepish about speaking before thinking, Baijo let her off the hook. "No, no, I insist. You just finished your swim. What would you like? We'll see if they have it."

"Er, ah, I'd like a, uh, a Pokari Sweet, if they have it," she requested and laid the towel she'd used over the chair to keep the plastic bands from sticking to her skin.

Baijo looked up at her daughter. "Your grandmother and I were going to have some hot tea so I'll have my hands full. Would you help me out?"

Baimei agreed, though with an odd reluctance, and handed Ranma her terrycloth hotel robe and retied her own. "Want anything, Dad?" she asked Nikorin, who sat beside Ranma.

"Milk tea, please. Bring back a snack, too, would you?" Nikorin asked.

"Of course," Baijo agreed.

"Be right back Ranma-chan," Baimei said, giving her a reassuring smile. Ranma watched as Baijo led Baimei back into the hotel.

"So you study the martial arts, Ranma-chan?" Nikorin asked, drawing her attention back to the remaining family members.

The question was simple enough. "Yes," she replied.

"We saw photographs of the school fight. It was incredible by normal standards," he said.

Ranma began to wonder where he was going with this and was of half a mind to preen under the compliment but something about the way he said it put her on alert. "It wasn't that great," she said with a shrug. "Pantsuto showed up. He's a great fighter and as strong as an ox but I got a lot of help," she said, trying to mind her grammar around her fiancée's family.

"Has anyone ever been hurt in such impressive fights," he asked while Grandmother Baiko watched the pool in apparent lack of concern.

"No," was her first response, "everyone is sort o' okay with just beatin' their enemy in front o' everyone."

"Really?" Nikorin asked, though his voice had a deadpan ring to it.

Ranma gave a little ground and qualified her statement. "Well, Ryouga, Hibiki Ryouga, can get a little… down, you know, about not winning, and Pantsuto would rather beat me, steal my shorts, an' beat me some more 'cause he's such a jackass. Aaand, the girls would probably beat me for letting anyone steal my shorts, except them. Most people are kind of like Mousse. He'd like to beat me in the worst way in front of Shampoo but he kind of doesn't care when she's not watching."

"Still, no one is injured?" Nikorin asked.

"There… there have been some close calls," Ranma replied, becoming more uncomfortable with the topic. She pulled her feet, one after the other, up onto the chair and hugged her knees. She fidgeted, picking at her toenails, while she tried to avoid further explanation. "Sometimes things just get… intense." Ranma hoped the Shimeru family would notice her subtle hints to stop asking questions like that but they waited patiently, expecting an answer. "Okay, so a few times, not too many, there was a close call where someone almost… you know, but it didn't happen permanently."

Nikorin leaned over from his chair and rubbed her back between the shoulder blades. The unexpected comforting raised her opinion of the Shimeru mother in male form. His words, too, were both sincere and a surprise. "I am sorry to push you so hard on this topic, Ranma-chan, but my son could be a target of opportunity for many people and organizations. I only wished for you to understand just how serious a danger is out there and find out if you have been tested in one."

She stared, unseeingly, at her knees while her mind replayed dreadful scenes from Jusendo. There were others, too, that was for sure, but this last adventure, if it could be called that, had left an indelible mark on her. It had involved a great many choices a hair's breadth from death. She ran her tongue around the inside of her teeth and swallowed to work some moisture back into her dry mouth. Closing her eyes, she grudgingly told them, "Akane almost died last time she got kidnapped. So did I and a lot of others. I h-had to kill someone. He's the Phoenix Prince so all of his bits, they burned up and he turned into an egg so he'd get reborn." She buried her face in her knees so they could not see how upset it made her.

Nikorin continued to rub her back for another moment in silence. She enjoyed it with a guilty pleasure that balanced the hurt until he said, "Ranma-chan, perhaps you should put your feet down and cross your legs. You're giving that table of young men a show."

"Huh?" she asked, looking up and around before spotting the guys a few tables away taking surreptitious glances her way. Their eyes were aimed lower. "Oh," she added and slid her feet off the chair's seat and crossing her knees. She then snatched her robe off the round table and stood to put it on before reclaiming her seat. She tried to avoid the men's gazes. "Um, thanks, Shimeru-san," she mumbled, crossing her legs again and straightening the robe out over her knee.

"Keep working at maintaining proper modesty and dignity, Ranma-chan, and please call me mother or father," Nikorin chided. Ranma felt a warm fuzzy feeling not entirely caused by the thick robe. It contrasted wildly with the growing chill of doom creeping up her spine and the cooling night air over her damp feet.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"What's up, Mom?" Baimei asked, walking with Baijo, who was currently her mother, into the hotel's pool entrance. A row of vending machines was hidden inside the small foyer along with doors to the men's and women's toilets. Another pair of doors made of triple-paned glass separated the pool area and hallway toward the elevators, no doubt to keep the noise from reaching the lobby.

Baijo, who was currently her mother, pulled her black billfold and a few large coins from the front right pocket of her khaki slacks. She wore them, and a loose matching blouse with palm frond prints over her swimsuit. The set clashed with the bright blue and green mottled one-piece beneath. Baimei refused to comment on it. She had long since given up trying to instill fashion sense into her genetic father and, to be honest, she never really cared that much, either. Baijo handed her a short stack of five hundred yen coins, which she took without argument wishing it were a bit more.

Mother and daughter, or father and son, stood before the vending machines in companionable silence until Baimei deposited a fat coin into the machine before her. "How is everything between you and Ranma-chan," Baijo casually asked while he fed a thousand yen note into the hot drink machine.

Startled, she answered, "Pretty good." She would have said more but thought better of it.

"That's good," Baijo answered just as cryptically punching a button. A can loudly fell to the bottom and the machine began spitting back change. Baimei belatedly punched her own button, getting Ranma her Pokari Sweet. "Have you asked her to marry you, yet?" Baijo asked causing Baimei to gape at her while she bent to pick Ranma's drink from the machine's mouth.

"N-not yet," Baimei responded.

Baijo started feeding the change back into the machine. "Do you intend to?"

Feeling caught red-handed, Baimei answered, "Um, yes." The doors to the pool were pushed open and three foreign men in trunks and loose shirts or tee-shirts walked by talking in English, or maybe Australian, about when they'd meet in the lobby the next morning. One had a funny accent that sounded like German but Baimei was a poor judge of language. Another yawned, widely, on his way through to the lobby. All she knew was that none sounded American like her English professor. She fed more change into the cold drink machine and punched the button under an example can of iced coffee.

"How far have you two gone?" her mother asked feeding change into the machine once more.

Baimei paled and looked away trying to think of what to say. At the farthest end of the row of machines, near the bathrooms, was a machine selling panties and porn magazines. Next to it was a narrow machine selling energy drinks and condoms. 'So that's where they found them,' she realized, thinking of her brothers. 'Where are they, anyway?' She needed to repay them somehow.

"Son?" Baijo prompted.

"Oh, ah, after supper we went back to our rooms and changed but Ranma came over and we ended up talking. She doesn't mind that I'm really tall. Really! And, she seems like she's okay with my turning into a man."

"That's good," her mother commented gathering a third drink in the crook of her left arm. Baijo moved closer to the doors near the lobby. There was a vending machine there for flowers and she idly pushed the button to rotate the carrousel.

Baimei looked around the short hall brightly lit with colorfully glowing advertisements on the machine's faces. "Where's all the food?" she demanded. There was only one machine and it only had little snacks for kids.

"They want people to use the restaurant," her mother answered.

'Oh,' Baimei thought, 'no wonder. There isn't even a beer machine.'

"So, how far did you two go?" her mother persisted in asking.

Baimei realized Baijo wanted answers and would not leave the vending row until she got answers. "After we talked, some, Baisuke and Baito walked in on us to drop off some, ah, energy drinks," she admitted, more than willing to drag her brothers into it. "After that, we talked some more and then kissed and stuff," she said as ambivalently as she could hoping to gloss over some details.

"I hope you used a condom," her mother chided. Baimei gave half a nod but stopped, her face coloring. "Anything else happen?" Baijo asked, still idly pushing the carousel button on the flower machine.

Swallowing nervously, she struggled for something else to make the conversation less personal. The only thing she could think of was hardly better. "Sh-she decided to take me as a fiancé," she blurted out. Her knees were feeling rather week and she didn't know whether to blush the color of a tomato or pale like a ghost and faint.

Her mother seemed to have settled on something and fed some money into the vending machine. She slid a door open near the bottom and pulled out an arrangement Baimei recognized as having the bright yellow and orange colors Nikorin, her biological mother, enjoyed. "Then it seems like we're all in agreement," Baijo stated. "Pick out a few boxes of snacks and then come here. You should choose which flower you want to propose with." The iced coffee can slid from Baimei's grip and she was forced to jump so it wouldn't hit her toes.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Ranma watched, curiously, while Baimei and her currently female father wend their way around the pool back toward the round table they'd all claimed. Baimei and her mother both had an armload and were carrying what looked like miniature vases with flowers in their right hands. She and Nikorin quickly got up to help them unload onto the table. There was an eerie tension in the air that set Ranma's hackles up. Baimei still held the small plastic white vase with red white and blue flowers inside.

The mystery was solved when Baimei knelt before her and held out the flowers. "Saotome Ranma-sama," she quietly said with a stricken look on her face, "would you please marry me?"

In that instant, the Earth and all of time stopped for her. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart skipped. Ranma's first thought was that it wasn't as serious a situation as it appeared. Misunderstandings tended to happen with alarming frequency around her and this must surely be one of them but there were no laughter and no embarrassed retractions; not from Baimei and not from any one of her family. Ranma gasped, restarting her breath.

Wide-eyed, she looked down at the older woman kneeling in her hotel robe before her. Both hands were around the flower vase holding it out in offering. Baimei looked sick. Her face was both flushed and pale as if she had a fever. The vase wavered as Baimei's hands trembled. The young Shimeru gulped nervously and Ranma unconsciously mimicked her. The situation was absurd, yet utterly serious and Ranma knew every second was agony for the person she liked kneeling before her.

A five or six year old boy stopped to watch while he was wandering by. He blinked and time restarted. Ranma reached out for the flowers with a growing smile. "Red for boy and blue for girl, huh? Nice choice," she commented. "Now get up. You're attractin' attention." Ranma tried not to look at the guys around the pool openly gaping at the scene.

She almost set the flowers directly on the table but impulsively decided to see how they smelled. Ranma lifted the bouquet right up under her nose and inhaled, deeply, watching Baimei rise with a nervous smile. She fixed the moment indelibly into her memory before it could pass. "Thank you, Shimeru Baimei-sama," she replied. "I have other obligations to work out but I'll let you know real soon," she answered. The honesty of her own answer surprised her. This single tiny event was more profound than the formal omiai.

Taking Baimei's hand in hers, she smiled and said, "You look like crap," and led her to a reclining lounge chair nearby the table. "I think I promised you a massage," she added. Baimei was beginning to look pale. It would help her to lie down. Ranma reclined the lounge chair all the way down and took off her bathrobe, ignoring the rest of the Shimeru family, to spread it over the flexible plastic lathes. They seemed somewhat loose until she remembered her father, the panda, last used it.

Baimei offered only token resistance she was so far out of it. That made it easy for Ranma to slide her fingers through the belt; undoing the loose knot and helping her disrobe. Under her guidance, Baimei settled to her stomach on the flattened chair while Ranma knelt on the cement near the head. She placed a palm on each of Baimei's shoulders and leaned over giving the woman a kiss on her cheek. Whispering in her ear, Ranma said, "I have not said no. In fact, I'd kind o' like to say yes. I just got t' figure out what t' do with Akane an' the rest o' the Tendo family."

From then on, Ranma put her hands to work gently kneading the kinks out of her worn-out fiancé. She was pleased she could get her to relax. Baimei deserved it. She, and he, had earned this small comfort many times over and her fiancée eventually groaned in satisfaction while Ranma worked on the knotted and bruised areas. "Too bad this is a public pool," she saucily commented.

After the massage, she helped Baimei back up and into her fuzzy bathrobe grinning while her charge melted into the chair at the table with a pleased moan. "That felt sooooo good, Ranma-chan," Baimei complimented her. Ranma smiled happily and cracked open her can of Pokari sweet along with a box of Poko chocolate pretzel sticks.

"I want a massage, too," Nikorin said in a false whine to her left. Ranma was half-certain the pout on him was not the least bit faked.

Ranma gobbled her Poko and grinned. "You want one, too?" Baimei, sitting on Ranma's right side, groaned like an old man and reached feebly across the table for her iced coffee.

Nikorin blinked in surprise. "Would it be too much trouble?" he asked.

Shaking her head, she said, "Got t' use the toilet, first, stupid girl bladder, but I'll be right back. Maybe they got more towels around here." Ranma got up from her chair and slid into her bathrobe.

"I'll find you some," Baijo quickly said and stood as well.

They left the pool area together. Ranma parted from the woman who might be her father-in-law just inside the entrance to the pool area where the toilets and vending machines are and almost humiliated herself by going into the men's side but Baijo gently corrected her without ridicule. After doing her business and wishing she'd worn sandals, she washed her hands and returned after pausing to stare into the mirror over the two sinks. "Can I really do this?" she murmured on her way back through the doors to the pool. Across the blue water where half a dozen children shrieked excitedly and four adults swam or chatted together was a table with three people who she knew changed genders every day but were sane, even normal, in every other way.

"You're turn," she quipped while approaching Nikorin in his chair from behind. The man's face turned eagerly toward her and Ranma shucked her robe to lay it across the lounge chair. He didn't waste a moment.

"Thank you, Ranma-chan! Oh, I haven't had a massage in while. This is going to feel so good," he said.

"Oh, yeah," Baimai moaned. "For sure."

Ranma looked across the table to Baiko. "Want one?" she asked. "Better call it, now," she warned.

When she turned back, Nikorin was already down to his swim trunks and settled on his stomach. Ranma quickly got to work. This time she added stretches from her repertoire of physical therapy and acupressure, things no one in her family business can do without. She also began to feel out Nikorin's chi paths. They did not seem normal and they puzzled her.

Fifteen minutes later, Nikorin was moaning in an endorphin-induced high, which Ranma was smugly proud of, when Baijo returned with a small load of towels, including two bathrobes, and the rest of the Shimeru family. "Grandpa, you've got to let Ranma-chan give you one of these massages," Nikorin said from where he lay on the chair.

"I've been watching," Baiko said. "I'm not sure I want to be folded up and bent around like that. I'm not as flexible as I used to be."

Ranma was secretly relieved. Giving massages was not what she normally practiced and there was a real danger she could tear muscle or break bones.

"You guys don't get any," Baimei said waving in dismissal at her brothers.

"That's okay, Little Sister," Baito commented, "We already got ours."

Ranma helped Nikorin sit up but did not need to help him to his feet. "Go fetch another table," he said, quite unnecessarily. Both Nibun and Fumori were already on it. The two industrious women looked tired but they quickly had another round table pulled together with the original one and were gathering chairs for their spouses.

"Flowers?" Baisuke prompted to his sister.

Baimei remained silent leaving Baijo to explain. "Baimei proposed to Ranma-chan."

"Dad!" Baimei exclaimed in embarrassment.

"She hasn't said yes, yet, but we're hopeful," Baijo continued, riding right over Baimei's protests.

"Hey, congratulations," Fumori told Baimei with a knowing smile.

"Yeah, congratulation," Nibun added.

Baimei accepted their well wishes a lot easier than she accepted the innuendo her brothers launched into. Ranma observed everything with interest. Before, she was a guest at the table. Now, she was overwhelmed by the mass of the family.

"Come on, dear," Nikorin said to his wife, "You work long enough hours. You could use a good massage and Ranma-chan is very talented."

Suddenly the center of attention, again, Ranma looked toward Baijo and nodded. "Ready?" she asked.

The woman dithered, undecided but obviously interested, until Nikorin grabbed her arm and led her toward the chair. Baijo ducked her head toward Ranma and said, "Please treat me kindly." Nikorin stood by while his wife took off her shirt and slacks leaving only the bright blue and green mottled one-piece swimsuit.

Ranma ran her fingers along the inside of her suit's leg openings and under the shoulder straps to reseat them before approaching her fiancé's female father as she gingerly lay down on the reclined lounge chair. "Is there anywhere that hurts?" she asked.

"My back," she replied without hesitation.

The rest of the family watched while Ranma traced the woman's spine and the muscles attached. Baijo winced around some of the muscle groups in the middle and near the neck. Ranma got to work. First, she had to loosen the muscles. Methodically, she worked her neck and back loose before moving on to her arms and hips. Baijo put up with all of her abuse, biting back occasional moments of discomfort just like a man ought to. Once Ranma was reasonably confident Baijo was ready, she said, "I'm going to straighten your spine, okay. It's prob'ly gonna pop a few times. You're kind o' compressed an' pushed out."

Baijo did not tell her to stop but did not give permission, either. In the end, Ranma decided to go ahead and do it, anyway. She was sure Tofu-sensei would. Still, she started with Baijo's hips. Ranma had her lay on her back while she picked up a leg in one arm and used her other arm to push Baijo's hip over in a quarter turn. Two great pops were heard and Ranma rocked the hip a bit farther. Without stopping, she put the leg down and went around the chair for the other only to do the same thing making an audible thump. She went back and forth between legs until she was sure Baijo's muscles were stretched and her lower spine mostly in line.

"Sit up," she prompted. Baijo sat up and turned sideways in the chair. Ranma got behind her on her knees and gently wrapped her left arm around her neck. She pushed his head with gently increasing pressure from her right hand while her left increased its own tension. Baijo's neck popped loudly. Ranma quickly switched arms and did the same. Then, she traced Baijo's spine from her neck to between her shoulder blades and hooked an arm under the older woman's armpit. She lifted the arm with a twist while pressing her forearm along the spine. Baijo crackled and it was the other arm's turn.

The massage lasted almost half an hour while the family chatted about work and after-work activities or, in Baimei's case school. Once Ranma got the woman's disks back in line, she continued working Baijo's muscles and spine, stretching, massaging, and twisting until they moved freely. Then, she went back and focused on giving her the same whole-body acupressure treatment that flooded Nikorin's body with endorphins not too long ago.

"Wow," Baijo said when it was finally over. "I'm sure tomorrow I'll feel like a new man but tonight, I feel like an over-cooked noodle."

Ranma laughed, nervously, helped her back to her chair at the table and pulled her fluffy robe on, again. "Heheh. Sorry about that. I'm not really good at this stuff. Ono Tofu-sensei is a real doctor. I prob'ly messed you up."

Nikorin asked, "Oh, do you know a doctor that gives massages like yours?"

Ranma shook her head. "Ono Tofu-sensei runs a moxibustion clinic. He knows way more stuff than I do. All the old geezers in town go to him."

"Is that so," Nikorin commented shooting a meaningful look at his wife and mother-in-law.

"Hey," Ranma hesitantly started, "do you guys get stronger as you get older?" There were confused and intrigued looks all around so she decided to explain the oddity a little more. "When… when I gave Baimei-chan her massage, her chi was all…" Ranma waved her hands at the back of her neck. "… back here and along her spine and it looked kind o' low, like she's tired, but you guys," she said glancing toward Baijo on one side of the table and Nikorin beside her, "have more. It's still in the same place, held real close to the spine and head. I know you guys're different 'cause normal people like me have it spread out more except for our core, here." Ranma indicated her diaphragm.

"What are you talking about?" Fumori asked. It seemed the rest of the family had the same question if the matching looks on their faces meant the same.

Ranma rose from her chair between Nikorin and Baimei and walked to stop at the adjacent table behind Baito. She held her hands out behind the man and frowned. Moving along to Fumori, she did the same and got the same result. "Huh. Weird. You guys are tired, too."

Baisuke laughed and wagged a finger at his brother and sister-in-law. "Busted!" Ranma walked around to the next person, Nibun. She appeared low on chi as well but when she approached Baiskue, he waved his hands and said, "Guilty! Guilty!"

Ranma looked back across the table. Nikorin had an eyebrow up on his forehead. He made a moue at his oldest children. "Make sure the four of you get a good night's sleep," she intoned. Ranma glanced over to Baimei. She looked somewhat befuddled, too.

"Interesting talent you have there, young lady," Baiko said giving her a measuring look.

Ranma, still standing behind and between Nibun and Baisuke, asked, "What?"

On Baisuke's left, his mother, Baijo squirmed as if to burrow deeper into her seat. "This is probably a topic for a more private setting," she said. "Why don't we go retire to our rooms for the night. It's been a long day. We can all sleep in, tomorrow. We'll have a Western brunch at eleven. From two to four, we have a master of the tea ceremony to teach or refresh us on the classic art followed by an engagement party I have yet to arrange." Baijo looked her in the eye and said, "If it is all right with you, Ranma-chan, I would like to extend the omiai until Monday morning because it has been such a success to this point. I already have yours and your parents' rooms reserved for the extra night. I know you have other commitments and school on Monday but, if you agree to an engagement to Baimei, I would like to have a little celebration."

"You're asking me?" she asked having been caught by surprise.

"I am," Baijo replied. "I know you are already engaged to someone else and possibly others, too, but will you accept an engagement to our family as well?"

Ranma quickly glanced to Baimei. The tall girl paled and dropped her eyes but lifted them back to meet hers with desperate hope. "I do. I mean, I will," Ranma confidently stated. "I've been engaged to people I like less for some dumb-ass reasons. Can you guys deal with my life being totally screwed up?"

Baito snorted and Nikorin shot him another raised eyebrow. Ranma's eyes were on Baimei. "I don't care," she said.

"What if I act like a cat and shred your furniture?" Ranma asked.

"We'll get you cat ears and paw gloves, maybe a tail, too," Baisuke replied warmly. Baimei blushed and Ranma declined to ask.

Instead, she asked, "What if some goofball decides to challenge me to a fight or some pissed-off ex-fiancée comes after my hide?"

"We have our own resources, too, Ranma-chan," Nikorin proudly said from his chair opposite her. He gave her a level stare, though, adding, "Please do not let people destroy our house. Is that clear?" Ranma nodded, quickly.

"In that case, Ranma-chan, do you accept an engagement to Baimei?" Baijo patiently asked.

Ranma thought it over rapidly. The decision was easy and she strode back around the table to stand next to Baimei, who looked up at her in breathless anticipation. "I just… I'm… Sorry, I'm not used to being asked but I made up my mind, before. You have my word, Shimeru Baimei, that I'm gonna be your fiancée. That don't mean we'll get married, for sure, 'cause my life is complicated but you got every right to call me your fiancée." With that, Ranma ducked her head to meet Baimei's lips and let her new fiancée guide her into her lap while they kissed long and deep.

"Holy shit! Check it out!" one guy yelled across the pool. Ranma and Baimei instantly separated, blushing from embarrassment. They spied the man pointing at them with his mouth and eyes wide open. His friend's face was swiveled around toward them and Ranma had a fraction of a second to notice how deeply red it was before he fainted backward, blood exploding in a gory shower across the concrete from his nose. Children ran screaming while a pink cloud spread across the pool.

"I think we should all head up to our rooms, now," Baijo said. There was agreement all around.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Hello?" Akane called, knocking on the door to U-chan's.

She saw Konatsu scurry toward her and, a moment later, he was throwing bolts and opening the door for her. "Please, come in, Tendo-sama," he said bowing politely, though he still bowed like a woman. It was understandable, Akane supposed, after all, he dressed like a woman, spoke and acted the part exceedingly well.

"Thank you, Konatsu-kun," Akane replied with a bow. "There's no need to be so formal with me," she reminded him for the thousandth time. He stood to the side and she entered, straightening her gi one last time. This was an important visit and Akane wanted to put her best foot forward. "Is Ukyou-san done cleaning up?" she asked.

"Ukyou-sama is counting her vegetables," Konatsu explained in his odd way. It appeared Ukyou was taking inventory. Akane would wait. She had already waited this long. A few more minutes would not make a difference.

She let Konatsu lead her toward the great grill marking the border between kitchen and dining area. The tables already had their chairs turned over atop them. Akane took a seat at a stool and he brought her a diet cola, no doubt remembering her usual preference. "Thank you, Konatsu-kun," she told him. He smiled and bowed before going back to mopping the floor with a zest and efficiency that might only be found in someone with training as a teahouse kunoichi. Akane often wondered what sort of life he'd really led before her master and the fathers liberated him.

Sipping her cola through the straw and trying not to touch the plastic glass lest her fingers get cold, Akane waited stoically for Ukyou to finish her inventory. "Konatsu-kun," she began, "how much do you know about Ranma?"

He slowed his cleaning enough to reply, "Ranma-sama is my idol. He's so handsome and can be so manly Ukyou-sama cannot help but fall in love with him."

"What about his girl-side?" she asked, getting to the heart of the matter.

He paused and stood up, sticking the mop-head back in the wheeled bucket and dragging it along beside him toward the front door. Amazingly, he didn't slop a drop on his waitress uniform. Akane wished she was that graceful. "Ranma-sama can be a woman or a man. He has many talents that I admire."

"You admire that?" Akane asked in surprise. "His curse isn't that convenient, you know."

"That is why he is so strong, Tendo-sama. I wish I could be that adaptable but I was raised as a girl. Whenever I try to be a man, I look foolish. Ranma-sama can be a man, or a woman."

Akane gave up and let him continue cleaning in silence. Her glass was nearly empty when Ukyou came out of the refrigerator with her clipboard at last. "Hi, Ukyou-san," Akane announced with as pleasant a smile as she could.

"Akane-san," Ukyou returned, "what brings you here, Hon?"

"Well, I came here to see if you were up to a little challenge between us. You're Ranma's fiancée, too, and I thought you might understand him a little better," she replied.

That got Ukyou's attention. "You're here to challenge me?"

Akane waved her hands in the negative. "Not to a fight. I might not be able to beat you and I'm not interested in that, anyway. I'm thinking of a different kind of challenge."

Ukyou's eyes narrowed and she hung her clipboard by a hook on the kitchen's wall. "What kind o' challenge?" she asked.

This was what Akane had been working out all evening. She gave a theatrical sigh and said, "You know how Ranma's getting more comfortable being a girl, right?"

"Yeah, maybe," Ukyou allowed.

"Well, have you ever thought about what it would take to keep her happy?" Ukyou didn't answer but narrowed her eyes further. Akane knew the idea had to have occurred to the other girls. It was obvious, after all. "Ranma has been spending a lot of time as a girl, lately. She even had that weird boyfriend of hers. I'm worried I won't be able to deal with touching Ranma as a girl."

Ukyou turned away and went to the soda fountain to pour herself a drink of her own. Akane figured it was to hide the fact her admission hit home and gave the chef a moment to mull it over. When Ukyou returned, Akane affected a dejected look. "Ranma's away this weekend, you know. She's going to an omiai her parents arranged."

"What?" Ukyou yelled in shock.

Akane nodded, mournfully. "It's true. Auntie and Uncle Saotome found some girl who changes into a man. The whole family changes genders. They're at the omiai right now."

Ukyou walked woodenly around the grill and took a stool to sit on, herself, leaving one empty between. Akane eyed it, judiciously, while Ukyou complained, "How could he do that to me?"

"It wasn't Ranma," Akane replied. "Obasan and Ojisan decided. He had to go along. I'm just worried this new woman who turns into a guy will have an advantage over me."

"So you came here to challenge me?" Ukyou growled.

"I wasn't going to challenge you to a fight. That's pretty pointless. I don't think this new girl knows anything about fighting at all. If he wants a skilled fighter, he'll pick between us, right?" Ukyou glowered at her. "Anyway, that's not what I was worried about. I mean, what if this girl is good with girls? Think about it. This is a girl who turns into a man. She knows everything about both sexes first hand. She could be having her way with Ranma right this minute," Akane said while thinking the odds of that happening incredibly long.

"Why're you here, again?" Ukyou asked. "Because if you're just trying to piss me off, you're doin' a great job."

"A friendly challenge – for training, actually. It's partly a challenge to myself, too. I- I need to find out if I can touch Ranma-chan, like that." This was the delicate part, she knew. Akane had to make it sound reasonable and necessary. Otherwise, Ukyou may never agree to be her training partner.

"Touch her? You mean, ah, have sex with his girl side?" Ukyou asked, disbelief in her voice.

"Yes," Akane affirmed. "I know I'm attracted to Ranma's boy-side. I guess you are, too," she said raising her eyebrows in question.

Ukyou nodded. "Damn right."

"See, the problem is with his girl-side. That's half of Ranma. He's, like, a girl half the time!" Akane said waving her hands in a wild gesture. "What can I do to compete with a woman who turns into a man?" A grunt and a slurp was Ukyou's response. "That's why I need your help. Maybe you don't need mine. You're used to acting like a man. Maybe you've had practice with other girls. I haven't. That's why I thought I'd come to you."

"I only dress like a man!" Ukyou said and thumped the counter with a fist for emphasis.

"Oh," Akane said in a disappointed tone. "I thought you'd be up for a challenge."

"I am up for a challenge but this is…"

Turning on her stool, Akane gave her full attention to Ukyou. "Look, Kuonji-san, I am not willing to lose to some guy just because I don't have any experience, much less because I can't please his girl-side. I'd like to practice with you because you understand Ranma better than anyone else and I trust you to keep this between us." She took a deep breath but continued to hold Ukyou's gaze. "However, I also understand how hard this is."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Ukyou wavered on the edge. Tendo's proposal sounded crazy. It was crazy. Ukyou was not the least bit attracted to women but Akane's argument was valid. What would she do if her Ran-chan did not get the cure to his curse? Would she be able to handle it, as Tendo Akane was trying to do?

"Okay. I'm up for it," Ukyou said though she wondered if it were really true. Akane reached over and clasped her hand reassuringly. "Let's take this upstairs or we'll give some salaryman a bloody nose an' I'll just have to kill him." Turning toward the silently observing kunoichi, she said, "Konatsu-kun, mind the store, would you?" He nodded in uncharacteristic quiet.

Her heart hammered as she preceded Tendo Akane up the staircase in the back. Most of the upstairs was storage leased out to various other businesses nearby. She kept only a small room in the front for herself. Konatsu slept in under the counter in an unused space downstairs as part of his free room and board.

Once in her room and out of prying eyes, she checked the blinds to make sure they were down and turned to face her rival for Ranma. "So, how does this challenge, work, Hon?" she asked placing her hands on her hips.

Akane took a step forward, stopping just outside of her personal space. "Well, let's see. For the challenge to work, we have to be able to touch each other," she said holding up one finger. Ticking off another point, she added, "We have to try to touch each other in an exciting way. A clumsy grope like some stupid boy would just upset Ranma, right? That's why we need to try to make her feel good."

Ukyou involuntarily swallowed. Her mouth was dry. It wasn't a good sign. She nodded, anyway. "M-makes sense."

"Finally, we have to try to feel good, ourselves when we get touched by a girl."

Gulping again, Ukyou nodded. This had to be the weirdest challenge she'd ever been in. It trumped the Gambling King by a lot, a whole lot. "How – How do we start?" she asked, voice dry like a bag of flour.

"Well, you could touch me," Akane suggested. She stepped forward, again, and Ukyou forced herself not to step back. "Why don't we lie down?"

"No, I'm all right," Ukyou said without thinking.

Akane nodded slowly and reached out taking Ukyou's right hand in her left. "I have to learn how to please Ranma-chan," Akane said and Ukyou nodded in agreement. Akane brought Ukyou's hand up to the Tendo's left breast and left it there while she stepped closer still to do the same to Ukyou. "Come on, Ukyou," she whispered as her lips drew closer, "this is a challenge. Can you afford to lose? I know I can't."

Ukyou fought with fear and revulsion while Akane drew her in for a light kiss. It was underwhelming, to say the least, but the Tendo girl's lips trailed kisses down her neck. The one hand started massaging her breast and the other crept around her back to her spine. Ukyou tried to mimic what Akane was doing but having fingers slide down into the valley in her rear shocked her to inaction. She tried to regain the initiative by gripping Akane's bottom but nothing seemed to work. Akane was not having any difficulty touching another woman.

Something warm happened to her left breast under Akane's insistent hand and it confused her. The Tendo woman switched hands and the same thing happened to the right breast. 'What's going on?' she wondered. 'Am I really attracted to women?'

Akane's arms wrapped around her waist and Ukyou felt herself lifted from her feet and tilted backward. She held onto Akane, wrapping her arms and legs around the smaller woman to keep from falling, while she was let gently down to her own futon, which Ukyou rarely folded up and put away.

White cloth, the traditional wrap used as a brassier that helped hide her gender, filled her vision. "How-" Her okonomiyaki-seller's shirt slid up under her armpits exposing her chest to Akane's hungry lips and fingers. What was happening on her upper torso distracted Ukyou for some time but she became aware of the Tendo woman's missing hand when a warm pulse drove straight into her mound. 'Ki! It's a ki technique!'

That missing hand of Akane's, now found, cupped her entire private area and began rubbing in a slow circle. It was happening too fast for Ukyou. She knew enough, now, to understand how Akane had suckered her and began to struggle. A warm flash entered her somewhere very sensitive and very close to her anus. "No!" Ukyou yelled and pushed Akane's shoulders up and away from her, forcing the frightening girl to lose the lip-lock on her right nipple.

"Come on, Ukyou!" Akane begged. "I promise you'll like it! Please, I need the practice!" As if Ukyou needed another reminder, Akane tried to slip her hand down into Ukyou's pants.

"No!" Ukyou barked and kicked herself backward, away from the crazed Tendo sex fiend. "I can't do this!" she yelled but whatever Tendo Akane had done to her still stimulated her most sensitive parts.

Without warning, Konatsu was there; four of him, in fact. Two were escorting Akane back downstairs while one ran to the bath to remove the sections of insulation covering the tub and the other herded her toward the change room with a big blanket. She could hear Akane complaining on her way out, her voice becoming more strident in its frustration. The front door opened and closed with finality.

Relief washed over Ukyou while she found herself shaking in Konatsu's arms. One of him went up in smoke leaving her with the real one, she hoped. That one she hung onto while Akane's perverted ki technique echoed through her loins.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Ranma hummed in the elevator surrounded by Shimeru. Her fiancée stood close by while the family made their escape with the other hotel guests fleeing the poolside bloodbath. 'Just act innocent,' she chided herself. Sneaking a look up at Baimei's face, she ventured a smirk. The woman looked appalled; mortified, even. It wasn't their fault that guy had a low tolerance.

The lift chimed softly and let them out on their floor. Down the hall, room service was cleaning one of the rooms near theirs. A large cart of laundry including fresh towels and a large hamper for used linen was set to one side while a maid went in and out of an open room, no doubt preparing it for another guest.

"I hope she's not planning on vacuuming," Baimei commented.

"It is kind of late to be doing the rooms," Fumori added.

Ranma paid it little attention. By agreement, they were all heading to Grandma Baiko's room. The female patriarch used his key and the family filed in after him. Nikorin was last in, his eyes narrowed at the hall. They arrayed themselves around the room before Baiko nodded to her daughter, Baijo.

"Ranma-chan, can you watch or feel or whatever you do while I change genders?" Baijo asked. She nodded, confused, but patient. "One moment, though," she added and went into the bathroom. Less than a minute later, she came back out wearing a fluffy robe like the one Ranma currently wore and approached to stand in front of her.

"Okay, Ranma-chan," Baijo said. "I'm going to change a few times. Tell me when you're ready. No one, at least not that we know of, has looked into our changing ability quite like you. We're all kind of curious."

Looking toward Baimei, Ranma got a nod. "Okay," she answered and closed her eyes holding her hands out toward Baimei's biological father. She concentrated when suddenly Baijo's chi shifted. "Whoah!" Now, it was spread out. "Go back," she asked. A few seconds later, Baijo's chi compacted back along her spine forming slightly larger pools near the top of the neck and in the small of her back. She opened her eyes and stared up at the middle-aged woman.

"What did you see?" Baiko asked Ranma from behind.

She continued to stare at Baijo puzzling over what she sensed. "Can you do it again?" Ranma asked and moved around behind her this time.

Baijo changed. Now his chi was spread out a lot like a normal person's there was more of it, though – more in both forms. This form seemed more spendy with it. She opened her eyes a crack to see where it moved to. Chi was filling channels previously nearly dry in his arms and legs. "You guys ever feel stronger like that? Your chi is all over. It looks mostly normal, now, but when you're the other way, it's like your body's hording it."

"Hmmm," Baijo hummed in thought.

Baiko explained from around Baijo, "Our birth forms are what we also call our immature forms. Whenever we need a boost of energy, we switch to our mature form. It happens for sex, of course, but it also happens when we get sick, or get stressed, or there's some sort of emergency. We can't hold it forever, though. We get tired faster and need to spend time back in our immature form."

Ranma took this into consideration and tried to discern differences between Baijo's male side and her own male side. Baijo had very few differences. There was still a small pool at the base of his skull. Some was between his legs but that was normal for everybody, right? She opened her eyes and looked over to Nikorin. He gave a nod and Ranma approached try the same thing.

Nikorin, like Baijo in her female form, seemed to be hoarding chi along the spine. "Okay, ready," Ranma said, her eyes still closed. The chi shifted. This time, in addition to flowing out along her limbs, the chi filled small paths to what Ranma guessed were her internal reproductive organs and breasts. She opened her eyes and matched the feel to sight. "It's the same but opposite," she concluded. "When you're mature, it's like you're normal humans with boosted chi. There's also this extra core in your head, here," she said pointing to the base of her own skull. "When you're the other way, most of the chi is gathered up along your spine."

"How does that compare to yours?" Baijo asked, his voice strong and commanding.

Ranma considered the question. 'How does theirs compare to mine?' Aloud, she answered, "I got this huge amount from training all the time. It's big an' it's all over but I also got this core, here," she told them pointing at her gut. "This is where I've built up my pool. I thought all people did that but you don't."

"What kind of things can you do with it, Ranma-chan?" Baimei asked. "We saw your Wave Motion Fist in pictures of the school fight.

"I use it for everything," Ranma answered easily. "I heal faster, keep from getting sick or get better quicker, running, jumping, fighting, even swimming. Once you get good enough at using it, there's lots of stuff you can do but it also takes a lot of it to do things."

"Maybe it's some kind of evolutionary thing, Dad," Nibun speculated. "I could see how conserving energy for mating or emergencies would be an invaluable skill. This isn't the first time this has been suggested."

"I know," Baijo replied to her, "but you're the family physician."

Nibun shrugged, now the center of Shimeru attention. "Our physiologies are identical, as far as we can tell, but this is new. It's the only real difference anyone has been able to point out other than observations about our strength, hair and pheromones. What no one has been able to explain is why we change into opposite genders. It seems like a waste of energy; that, and no one can explain where the energy comes from." Eyes all around returned to Ranma.

"Hey, don't look at me. I don't know anything," she protested but it turned into a smirk, "except, maybe, martial arts. There, I'm awesome!" That bought her a few chuckles and the family decided to break up into their own rooms for the night. Down the hall a few rooms, a vacuum cleaner whined noisily in an open doorway.

"Ranma-chan," Baimei said to catch her attention in the hall while her parents and siblings retreated to their rooms, "can I have another massage? You gave my parents the works and I'm kind of jealous," she said with an obviously half-sincere pout. The other half was a grin of anticipation she couldn't keep from marring the act.

The corner of Ranma's mouth crept up in a grin of her own. "Eh, why not," she said and abandoned her door to join Baimei at hers.

Baimei slid the key into the lock and gave it a twist, pulling the levered handle to open the door into a darkened room. Ranma followed her in closely and felt the hair on her neck stand up. "Watch it!" she snapped. Her foot snapped out, too, catching a shadow in the gut. She was about to call it a panda when she realized it wasn't.

"What's that!" Baimei exclaimed in alarm and fumbled for the light switch by the door.

"That" turned out to be a burly man in a black jumpsuit gasping for breath. Ranma dropped an elbow on his head and said, "Hold the door a sec." Baimei nodded, gaping, while Ranma picked the guy up by his belt and dragged him into the hall after peeking out to make sure no one was watching. The laundry cart was still there and looked both large and handy enough. "Hey," she whispered, "Grab your sheets."

Ranma left Baimei standing in the door and crept down the hall trying not to drag the assailant too loudly so as not to alert the vacuuming maid. When she got to the laundry cart, she gently heaved him over the side and he fell like a sack of rice into the large hamper. Baimei soon followed trailing a wad of bedding. Together, they were able to pack them over the unconscious man and Ranma congratulated herself on the genius of getting rid of the stained bedding at the same time as the nut-case who thought he could catch her by surprise.

She waved Baimei back into her room and watched the lanky woman scuttle away like a silent crab until it occurred to her that she should disappear, too, and ran down the hall as silently as possible into the bay with the lifts. She wasn't a moment too soon when she heard the vacuum turn off. Ranma peeked around the corner and was spotted by the woman hurriedly putting the vacuum into its carrying spot on the cart.

Trying to look like an ordinary hotel customer, Ranma smiled shyly and walked up the hall toward her room and the cart beyond that. She got her key out in what she hoped was an innocent manner and tried not to stare at the laden cart as the maid felt the side and decided it was full. She had the key in her door before she remembered one crucial detail. "Hey, lady!" she called. The maid was industriously pushing the heavy card away toward the far end of the hall where the staff elevators were. "Hey!" Ranma called again and chased after the woman.

"What d'you want?" she said, not turning to show her face.

"Got any spare sheets?" Ranma asked. Otherwise, Baimei wouldn't have any.

"Sure, whatever, brat. Here," the maid said and grabbed a stack of them to load Ranma's arms until she could hardly see over the top.

"This is too many," Ranma complained. "I only need one set."

"Save 'em f'r tomorrow," the maid grouchily replied.

"Okay… I guess." Ranma took the load of clean linen and went back toward her room. Behind, she heard the service lift announce its arrival and the woman wrestled the cart inside. When it was gone, Ranma grumbled, "What a tomboy."

She knocked with her toe on Baimei's door and was ushered in. "Is he gone?" Baimei asked breathlessly.

"Yep," she answered and moved to the dresser to deposit her load. Baimei was out the door and across the hall knocking on her parents' room. Ranma sighed. "Man, I just know I'm going to get in trouble for this," she said looking over all the extra linen.