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  Ranma 1/2     "The Nature of the Curse"
 Hard Battle    Story by Douglas MacDougall
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    Originally posted 15 Jan 1999.
    The latest parts and revisions of this story are available at:
    http://www.dougmacd.net/fanworks/
 
    Ranma 1/2 (c) Rumiko Takahashi / Shogakukan * Kitty Film * Fuji TV.
    Exclusively licensed throughout the United States and Canada by Viz
    Communications, Inc.  This fan fiction is for private home use only;
    it may be freely redistributed, but not altered or used for profit.

    Not Rated.  Parental Guidance Suggested.
    
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   Part  7       Encounters in the Dark!  Friend or Foe?
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    In the overcast sky, the lights of nighttime Toyko reflected off the 
clouds and created just enough reddish light above to allow one to see two 
dark forms approaching the Tendo household.  One was sure-footed, and moved 
with a cat's grace.  Another, taller form tumbled behind, tripping over 
pebbles and branches in the near-darkness.  

    The shorter one grabbed the taller by the collar and hissed at him, "You
want wake up house?  Be quiet, and follow Shampoo!"

    The other adjusted his glasses, which managed to glint even in the feeble
light.  "I can't see a damned thing!"

    Shampoo hissed back, "You be good boy and listen Shampoo!  Now quiet, and
follow plan!"

    The other started grumbling, but followed Shampoo as closely as he dared.
He didn't attempt to hold onto her hand or clothing, after the first time he 
received a vicious slap from the Amazon.  

    Entering the compound through the rear entrance, Shampoo left the boy 
behind and bounded over and around the house.  She performed a quick rounds 
and noted that all the lights were out.  She lingered a moment at the kitchen 
window to make sure that Genma wasn't gathering a late night snack and eating 
in the dark.

    Hearing a noise to her left, she stalked to the walkway between the house 
and dojo and noted her companion fumbling with the steps to the training hall.

    "You stupid," she hissed, and grabbed the back of the sash around his 
waist.  She leap and hauled him up.  The two landed on the slanted rooftop 
that covered the walk.  Holding his head against the tiles (much to his 
frustration), she listened for any sound that their landing had been heard.

    Satisfied that the blind fool hadn't given them away, the two slunk around 
the well-worn overhang just outside the second-story windows.  Soon they were 
outside a window Shampoo (and the perverts of Nerima) knew by heart.

    Kneeling on either side of the window, the pair kept a low profile and 
were absolutely silent, controlling even their breathing.  Shampoo strained
to hear the sounds coming from inside the room.  Fortunately, the window was 
ajar.  A huffing noise was quickly identified as an unconscious panda.  The 
quiet moans of a young male came from their target.  Taking a risk, she opened 
the window a fraction more and peeked over the bottom of the window.

    "nnn...  not a tomboy, i'm a boy!"  The speaker writhed in his sleep, 
tossing and turning on the futon in the middle of the room.  To one side was 
a bed which barely contained the large form of a lazy panda.  Aside from a 
flicking ear, it did not seem to notice the moans.

    Shampoo ducked her head below the window and whispered, "Is very bad!  You 
hear that?"

    "...Yes."

    "You agree, now?  It must be done."

    "I'm still not sure.  I mean, isn't this a little extreme?"

    "You want pervert-girl mess with Airen's head?"

    "But she won't turn into a boy again..."

    "Probably make no difference to pervert-girl!  Remember, she live with 
Master pervert.  Maybe she in training?"

    The boy shuddered.

    "Is very bad she get ideas.  Shampoo think after turning into boy, she
like idea of girl-type Ranma.  She already say she no like boys!  Shampoo not
let her do weird things to Airen."

    "But kidnapping him?"

        *           *           *           *           *           *

    Ranma hated dreams.  He supposed that he MUST have good ones at some time, 
but he never remembered them.  No, he just remembered the horrible ones that 
made him wake up in a cold sweat, with the disturbing images still vivid in 
his mind.  Like the one where Kuno was grabbing him in the hot water, and he 
couldn't change back into a guy, or where he thought he had traveled through 
time and had seen Akane married to Ryoga.

    This was one of those dreams.  
    
    He suddenly sat up screaming, "We're both guys!", and clawed at the covers
to his futon.  In a panic, he looked around the room to make sure that the old 
man and his mother hadn't heard.  Fortunately, they were still blissfully 
asleep in bed.  He took a few moments to catch his breath.  It would HAVE to 
be a stuck-as-a-girl dream, wouldn't it?  

    In the dream he was a girl wearing a Furinkan girl's school uniform.  He 
couldn't change back, but somehow knew that the uniform was a shell, and if he 
just got it off, he could turn back to normal.  However, no matter how hard he 
tried, he couldn't get the stupid thing off.  His fingers were trying to unzip 
buttons and unfasten zippers.  

    A guy had started insulting him, calling him clumsy and a tomboy, but he 
just shrugged the insults off.  Then, with a few efficient motions, the 
strange young man removed Ranma's clothes.  When he realized he was still a 
girl, and naked in front of the boy, he tried to punch him.   The clumsiness 
and molasses-like speed of dreams slowed his fist to a crawl.  As he was 
swinging, the boy leered at the movements of his girl-type body.

    The boy was unaffected by the slow-motion effect, and at the last moment
easily caught the strike, holding him by the wrists.  He insulted Ranma's 
grace and femininity, which only made him laugh.  Didn't this moron know he 
was really a guy?  He said as much, and the boy chuckled.  Of course he knew; 
he was, after all, his fiance.

    And then it was as if the boy was boy-type Akane, (or was he Akane the 
whole time?) and he felt the flash of heat that he associated with his 
transformation.  Even though there was no water, he was a boy again.  

    He had woken up screaming when boy-type Akane, still holding his wrists, 
proceeded to kiss him full on the mouth.

    Stupid dreams.  He didn't need his brain to remind him how the events of 
the previous night had freaked him out.  But Akane was cured, or rather, was
never really cursed, so he didn't have to worry about it anymore.  "Got that
brain?" he mentally told himself.  At least he didn't wake up... excited or 
anything.  He didn't know if he could have lived with that.  Whatever had 
happened last night in the bathroom was some sort of weird fluke.

    Still too anxious to sleep, he shivered on his futon.  He had thrown off
the covers while thrashing in his sleep, and the window was ajar, with the 
wind gently blowing through it.  He started to crawl over towards it when he 
realized the noise was the whispers of two people.

    Ranma tensed, and dropped into a crouch, inching towards the window and 
the people behind it.  Judging from the voices, there was a man and a woman 
whispering to each other.  Either his ears were adjusting to the quiet, or 
their voices were becoming raised.

    "Is not kidnapping, is getting him safe away from Akane!"

    From the angle he was approaching the window, Ranma could only make the
man, who was kneeling on the short slope of rooftop just outside his window.
He was only able to make out the dim glow of a white robe, and the feeble 
reflection of light off of glasses.  "Mousse?"

    He didn't realize he had spoken aloud until the girl, who had been hidden
below the window, popped up and shouted, "Aiya!  Use powder!", and shook the 
person he had identified as Mousse.  He, in turn, fumbled in his sleeves, and 
pulled out a small packet.   Ripping off the top, he reached in and pulled at 
some sort of cardboard tab.  There was a loud popping noise like a party 
favor going off, but instead of streamers and confetti, a small cloud of gas 
come out.

    Ranma immediately scrambled backwards into the room, holding his breath.  
Mousse belatedly pointed the packet at him, but the gas had already come out
in a noxious cloud surrounding the couple outside.  Shampoo coughed and 
yelled, "You stupid!  Not know how to use sleeping..."  The rest of her words 
became a cute little whistling breath of deep sleep, and she fell into the 
boy's lap.  He in turn was breathing into the collar of his robe, flapping an 
arm.  However, instead of moving the gas into the room, he just succeeded in 
dispersing it.

    Ranma glanced back at his parents, but both had somehow managed to sleep
through the noise.  Nothing woke up his old man, and no doubt Nodoka had 
learned to filter out loud noises such as her husband's snoring.  It was 
weird having the two of them sleeping together in the room.  

    After Nodoka moved in, Ranma still slept on the floor with his futon, 
while his parents slept together in a bed Nodoka had brought over from the 
destroyed Saotome home.  Previously, the two had slept a little bit apart, but 
tonight he was a little disturbed to see that the Genma was a panda, and his
mother seemed to be cuddling up to him in her sleep.  She was using one paw as 
a pillow, and his other great furry arm as some sort of blanket.

    He thought about Akane.  What was it with women sleeping with animals?  

    Ranma stepped out the window and onto the roof and grabbed Mouse by the 
collar, hefting him up.  "Geez, Mousse, what's the big idea?!"  Ranma blinked 
as he got a better look at the boy.  "Akira?"

    "Ah... Heh... Good evening?"

        *           *           *           *           *           *

    Ranma left Shampoo lying on the floor in the dining room, as he brought
Akira downstairs to talk.  With the lights on, he could see how he mistook 
Akira for Mousse in the dim light.  He was wearing a white Chinese shirt, like
one of Ranma's, but colored white, and with ties down the side rather then 
front.  Finally, he wore a red sash and pants, and black slippers.

    "What the hell are you doing here?" he asked.  If Ranma were the type to 
get headaches, we was sure he would have one now.  "And what's the deal with 
this?"  He waved the opened packet of sleeping power that he had taken from 
the boy.

    "You have to understand, it was Xian-Pu's idea."

    "WHAT was her idea?"

    "Well, she was worried that the pervert gir-- (um) Akane was using her 
boy-t..."  The boy stuttered as Ranma's glare.  "That is, that she was... 
taking... advantage... of you with your girl-type body.  Xian-Pu wanted to 
keep you safe from her."

    "So you decided that KIDNAPPING me would be a good idea?!"

    "I didn't want to do it, but she said it was the only way to be sure.  
And..." he shrugged his shoulders.  "To be perfectly fair to Xian-Pu, she 
wasn't planning on confining or restraining you; she just wanted to give you a 
place to stay away from Akane.  You could have left whenever you wished."

    Ranma glanced at Shampoo, and then back at Akira.  "And where was this 
'safe place'?"

    "Well, her place."

    Ranma started coughing.  "She thought that was SAFE?  Geez, if Akane found 
out I'd be a dead man."

    Akira's brows furrowed.  "You mean, Akane...?  She really is as violent as 
Xian-Pu claims?"

    Ranma stared at the boy.  "Geez, you should know."  He pointed at the 
boy's arm, still in a sling.  "First-hand experience."

    "Well... I'd like to think there were extenuating circumstances in my 
case..."

    "Wishing don't make it true.  Akane's a violent tomboy, plain and simple."

    Akira was thoughtful for a few moments before continuing.  "Anyway, Xian-
Pu said that you might not be amenable to the idea if we asked you here, so 
she told me to bring one of my sleeping powder packets.  But she assured me 
that once she could explain things to you in the comfort of her bed, you would 
want to stay!"

    In her bed?!  He swallowed.  Geez, how could Akira say that so casually?  
"So you took her word for it and just came along with your drugs?  And where 
did you get this thing, anyway?"  He flipped the packet again. "You like 
collecting packets or something?" 

    "I don't collect them.  The sleeping powder is from work.  The Instant
powders...  Well, they're also from work."

    "Come again?"

    "Back in China, I was training to be the healer's assistant, but my mom 
wanted me to...  Well, I'm sort of a part-time Jusenkyo Products salesman."

    Ranma blinked at that.  "You sell those things?"

    Akira grinned, scratched the back of his head.  "More or less.  I don't 
suppose you want to buy one?  A little Instant Spring of Drowned Man for some
occasion when you want to stay male?"

    Ranma recalled the two products that Jusenkyo Products made that he had 
been exposed to.  Instant Nannichuan, which wore off after just one use, and 
waterproof soap, which (of all things) washed off with water.  Both were a 
little too finicky to actually be trusted if he actually needed to stay male.

    "No, thanks."  Akira raised his eyebrows at the response, but Ranma 
plowed on.  "If this was all Shampoo's doing, and she just wanted your packet, 
why did you come along?  Did you want a little first-hand kidnapping 
experience?"

    "Well, she told me to come.  Something about maybe needing my help to 
carry you back."

    Ranma held his head.  Maybe he WAS the type of person to get headaches.  
"So some girl you've never met comes up to you in Ucchan's, drags you out, 
wants your sleeping powder, tells you to come along and help her kidnap some 
guy you just met the day before, and you just say 'okay'?" 

    "It's not like she's a stranger.  She's a friend."  He scratched his head, 
"Well, an acquaintance, anyway."

    "Say what?"

    "We grew up together."

    "What, in China?"

    "Yeah, we lived in the same village."

    Ranma blinked.  "You're from Nyuchezu?  Aw, man, does that mean you're an 
Amazon, too?"  No good came from Amazons.  Well, except for a special attack 
or two.  At least Akira appeared to be living up to proper Amazon form.

    "Well, actually I lived several miles away from the village proper.  My 
parents and I lived in the hills surrounding Jusenkyo.  But yes, I'm an Amazon 
male."

    "If you're an Amazon, why don't know any martial arts?"

    "In Nyuchezu, all the women are martial artists, but only a fraction of 
the men are.  Those men that train to be fighters usually do it to catch a 
bride for themselves."

    "Yeah, I already know about defeating an Amazon to marry her."  Whoever
said that experience is the best teacher knew exactly what they were talking 
about.

    "Oh, no.  It's not like that.  If an outsider male defeats an Amazon in 
combat, she must marry him and bring him into the tribe, but if an Amazon male 
defeats an Amazon in combat, it doesn't automatically result in marriage. 
However,  defeating your prospective wife is considered... romantic.  Perhaps 
more importantly, single combat is one of the few ways an Amazon male can 
'propose' to an Amazon, instead of Amazon claiming a husband for herself.

    "So you didn't learn martial arts 'cause you're not looking for a wife?"  

    "Uhhh...  Not.. like that, anyway.  My dad thinks it's a great idea, but
Mom says I should...  Well, let's just say they both have some weird ideas on 
relationships."

    Ranma thought about his old man and Mr. Tendo.  And his mother.  "Yeah, 
join the club.  Everybody's got weird parents around here."

    Akira raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't comment on the remark.  
"Anyway, as an apprentice healer, it wouldn't really be appropriate for me
to go beating people up, now would it?"

    "I dunno.  Doctor Tofu's a good martial artist.  I've never seen him 
fight, but he has perfect control over his battle aura."  He thought about
Kasumi.  "Most of the time, anyway."

    "He?  They have male healers, here?"

    "Well, yeah..."

    "In Nyuchezu, all the other healers were female.  What woman would want a 
man as a midwife?"  He chuckled.  "All I could ever hope for was to be an
assistant, setting bones, clotting blood and the like.  I probably wouldn't 
have even been allowed that if my parents weren't born outsiders."

    "I guess that's why you don't have some weird name like Perfume or Soap."

    "Perfume or...?  Do I look like a girl to you?"

    Ranma had learned a long time ago to take the opportunities presented to 
him, and never to take gender for granted, so he took a closer look at Akira.
He was as tall as Kuno, with broad shoulders, but otherwise slender limbs.
Even his fingers were long and graceful.  He had brown hair, almost dirty 
blonde, which was a little long for a boy's cut.  His eyes were brown, covered 
with oversized glasses.  His face was long, but it had no hard edges, and 
there was no evidence of facial growth.

    He realized that he had never seen Akira without a high collar, such as 
the one on his boy's school uniform, or the robe he was wearing now, so he 
flipped open the catch of Akira's shirt and looked at Akira's throat.  When he
saw the bulge of an Adam's apple, he replied, "Naw, you don't look like a 
girl."

    Akira bigsweated.  "I wish you hadn't taken quite so long to come to that
conclusion."  He refastened the tie to his shirt.

"There've been a lot of cross-dressers in Nerima," explained Ranma.

    "..."

    "And so what if you're not a girl?  Amazon guys got weird names, too.  I 
mean, look at Mousse."

    "You know Mu-Tsu?"

    "Yeah, he lives with Shampoo and Cologne."

    "What?!  Mu-Tsu AND Ku-Lon live here?"

    Ranma shrugged.  "Yeah, over at the Cat Cafe.  It's a noodle joint about
ten blocks from here."

    "I must see them!"  Fires started buring in his eyes.

    Ranma didn't miss the opportunity to get rid of Akira.  The guy gave him 
the creeps.  Besides, it was late at night, and he didn't really feel like 
talking anymore.  Shampoo was out cold and Akira had used his only packet of
powder, so he didn't have to worry about any more kidnapping attempts tonight.

    "Yeah, Shampoo needs to get back, too.  How much longer is she going to be 
out, anyway?"

    "The powder is supposed to be good for four hours on a male.  She's 
smaller, though, so I'd expect it to last longer.  Maybe five hours.  Or four 
and a half, with her constitution."

    Ranma glanced at the clock on the microwave.  With the door blown off from
Akane's egg 'boiling' technique, the only thing it was good for was a clock 
and cooking timer.  The digital lights read 02:00.  Shampoo'd been asleep for 
about half an hour, so she would wake up around six or six-thirty in the 
morning, just when everyone else would be getting up.  Not a scenario he was 
looking forward to.

    "I guess we should take her back, then."  He lifted the slight girl onto 
his back, and started walking to the front door."  He noticed that she was 
lighter then Akane, even though they were the same height.  "You can follow 
me there."

    As he opened the front door, an unpleasant sight greeted him.  The
overcast skies had turned into a light rainfall.  Akira waited expectantly 
behind him as Ranma looked up and scowled.  "Maybe I should just give you 
directions."

    "What is it?"

    "I don't want to get wet."

    Akira looked at him for a few seconds before nodding.  "I suppose that 
makes sense.  Don't you have a raincoat or umbrella?  It doesn't look that 
bad."

    "Ryoga's always borrowing the spare umbrellas, and a raincoat wouldn't
help."

    "Why not?"

    "..."

    "Well?"

    "If Shampoo gets wet, she'll turn into a... A cat.  And I don't... like...
cats."

    "She fell into Maonichuan?"  He addressed the unconscious girl, "So this 
is why you needed me along, isn't it?  In case you got wet.  Poor Xian-Pu!  I 
suppose a cat fits your personality, but the Spring of Drowned Tiger would 
better suit your temperament."  He grinned to himself.

    Ranma shuddered at the thought.  "Yeah, well, anyway, I don't want to 
carry a wet Shampoo all the way to the Cat Cafe."  Yeah, right.  Carry a 
cat!  His left eyebrow twitched.

    "If it's that much of a problem, I can carry her."
    
    The easy excuses were running out.  "Look.  I just.. .really don't like
cats, alright?  I don't want to walk ten blocks even knowing one is nearby."

    "...Okay."

    Ranma was a little relieved.  Akira would probably find out sooner or 
later about his weakness from the other students, but he would rather it be
later.  Besides, better for him hear it as a rumor and wonder, rather then 
find out from the source and know it for true.  Fortunately, he'd accepted the 
explanation with no questions.

    "So I'll give you directions to place.  It's not hard to find, just two 
blocks off the canal.  You know where the canal it, right?"

    He cradled his arm.  "I think I know where to find it," he said 
sarcastically.

    "Great."  Ranma put Shampoo down by the front entrance, and went to the 
kitchen for a piece of paper and pencil.  He quickly drew a crude map with
drawing of landmarks.  He only labeled one or two street names, as he didn't 
know the others.  He normally traveled on foot, or over rooftop, and rarely
took note of the street.  As long as you weren't as hopeless as Ryoga,
buildings and landmarks were guide enough.

    He handed the note to Akira, who studied it intently for a minute before
slipping it up one of his sleeves.  He said, "Well, okay.  I guess I'll see 
you tomorrow at school."

    "You're not going to try to kidnap me again, right?"  He added as an 
afterthought, "Or Akane?"

    He started bowing deeply.  "O- Of course not!  I'm terribly sorry for what 
I almost did to you.  And Akane, too!  I'll make it up to you!  I promise 
I'll--"

    "Yeah yeah, don't worry about it.  Just take Shampoo home and I'll see you 
later."

    The boy stopped his nervous bobbing and picked up Shampoo, pulling her 
over his shoulders in a fireman's carry.  As he walked outside, Ranma closed 
the door behind him, not wanting to see Shampoo's transformation.

    He wasn't sure what to think about Akira.  He didn't seem like a bad guy;
he was just an idiot.  That was normal enough in Nerima.  And even though he'd
cursed Akane, and just tried to kidnap him, he seemed really sorry about it,
all bowin' and scrapin'.  Still, sometimes 'sorry' wasn't enough.  Something 
about the guy gave him the creeps.  He didn't know how to relate to people who 
weren't martial artists.  

    Well, he was gone now.  Hopefully he'd learned his lesson and would fade 
into the obscurity of all the other idiots of Nerima.  And if not....  Well, 
he'd keep an eye on him in case his screwups were any sort of regular 
behavior.  Ranma yawned and walked back up to bed.  

        *           *           *           *           *           *

    Ryoga cried bitter tears of frustration.  He was almost there!  Almost
there!  The Tendo dojo was right before him, but the doors were closed, and
there was no way he could pull them open it with his stubby little hoofed 
feet.  If only the stupid rain hadn't started for another two minutes, he 
could be inside and dry.

    He was well into wallowing in self-depression when the inset door opened 
in front of him.  Craning his woefully inadequate neck up, he looked at the 
person leaving the dojo.  A street lamp illuminated him enough for Ryoga to 
know he had never met the boy.  What caught his attention was the clothes the
boy was wearing -- they looked a lot like Mousse's -- and the small animal 
visible inside his robe, protected from the rain and supported by a arm that 
was crooked in a sling.  Judging from the size and coloring, it was cat-type 
Shampoo. 

    The boy looked around, and then up into the rain, and hissed under his 
breath.  With his free hand he rubbed at his eye, and flipped his hair off his 
forehead.  Without looking where he was going, he strode forward and nearly 
stepped on Ryoga, who squealed in outrage. 

    The boy looked down, but apparently didn't seen the black piglet on the 
dark asphalt in the rain.  Instead he reached down and picked up Ryoga's 
bright yellow umbrella, which had fallen off his pack when he had turned into 
P-Chan.

    "Hey, look, Xian-Pu.  Maybe we'll be able to stay dry after all!"  He 
opened up the umbrella, and shook the water out of his hair.  "Well, you'll be 
dry, anyway.  It's a little late for me."  

    He squinted the eye he had rubbed before and muttered, "Stupid Shampoo."
Ryoga, appalled that the boy had just taken the umbrella Akane had lovingly 
given to him after he had lost his own, squealed even louder and butted the 
boy in the back of his leg.

    That finally got his attention, as he turned around and looked at the 
small, black piglet.  With one eye squeezed shut, he had a rather malevolent
look to him.  More irritatingly for Ryoga, as P-Chan, he wasn't physically 
built to look straight up, so he had to roll back on his haunches, balancing 
precariously and exposing his soft underbelly.

    He normally didn't think of it as a 'soft underbelly', but something in 
the gaze of the boy make him think he was about to end up in another cook pot.

    "Damn pig."  The boy casually kicked P-Chan back with the side of his 
foot, causing him to roll back several times and hit the wall surrounding the 
Tendo household.  While his endurance as a piglet couldn't even be compared 
to that when he was a human, he was a tough little scrapper for his size.

    He shook his head and growled at the boy, keeping his head low and 
intending to attack, using his high-speed mid-air passing pig-strikes that he 
had perfected on Ranma.  When he was finished with him, he could get into the 
house through the door that the boy had left open.

    He stopped completely when the boy growled, "You even think of touching 
me, you filthy little beast, and I'll kick you so hard your tiny little excuse 
of a braincase will shatter like a defective pane of glass."

    Ryoga wasn't particularly worried about the threat; with his speed, size, 
and maneuverability, he was sure he could avoid contact, but the sheer 
malevolence in the voice frightened him.  This person would not only cook him, 
but would happily butcher him, and watch with glee as the blood drained out of 
his small body.  The self-preservation part of his porcine brain told him to 
get the hell out of Dodge, and that's precisely what he did.

    After about thirty seconds, and a couple of blocks, he caught his breath.  
His lungs weren't very big, so his little body expanded and contracted like a 
balloon being blown up by some child that hadn't learned to hold the end 
closed between breaths.

    Belatedly he realized that Shampoo might be in danger, too!  She was 
almost helpless as a cat, and was unconscious, to boot.  He turned around to 
follow the bastard that had kicked him, when he realized that he had no idea 
how to get to her.  And not more then three blocks away, the door to the Tendo 
compound was still open, and he had no idea how to get to it, either.  

    He cried bitter tears of frustration.  Again.

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 End Part  7    Next Time:  "The Tomboy Effect"   
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