Ace Sanchez (email: jsa@fl.net.au | www: http://jsa.users.fl.net.au/) Previous parts available at above website or on the RAAC itself. Hmmm, about time I submitted this part to RAAC I think ... (Standard disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and its associated characters created by Rumiko Takahashi. I wonder if people actually read the disclaimers?) ______________________ Blonde 1/2 ______________________ Part 5 "Shopping Is A Battlefield! Ryoga vs. Ryoga" It was deathly silent. Deathly silent, when just a second before, there had been the loud noise of talking and laughter. All of which changed when the gaze of hundreds of students, all lined up in the main courtyard for the assembly, so many that it was probably everyone in the whole school, locked on to the strange pigtailed boy. Who was wearing the Furinkan school uniform. The Furinkan girl's school uniform. Complete with short skirt. It wasn't even in the pervert boy's size, it being way too small for him. A dress that was also ripped in a lot of places, mainly along the chest and shoulder. Someone coughed, breaking the appalled silence. A girl, in the row closest to him, screamed, "Pervert!" "Yuck! A crossdresser!" This one from somewhere in the middle of the vast crowd. "How disgusting!" "How could someone that cute, stoop to that?" "Maybe he wasn't getting enough booty - Ow!" The girl who spoke rubbed her head while her embarrassed friend, next to her, tried to look innocent. One of the teachers said on the microphone, "Will someone please call security! Tell them there's a pervert on campus!" At this, everyone began yelling, the crowds of students pointing, some laughing, others screeching in fear and disgust. The teachers were all scurrying about like headless chickens. It was complete chaos. Ranma was still frozen in shock. He belatedly heard his mind telling him that running would be a good idea, but for some unknown reason he held a grim masochistic fascination with just staring at the crowds of people. To make matters worse, his blue skirt was starting to creep lower ... Akane, standing with her two friends at the far edge of one of the rows, stared at her fiance wearing a dress for the whole school to see. "What the heck is he doing, coming to the assembly like that? Is he crazy?" she asked aloud in horror. Sayuri and Yuka looked worriedly at her. "You know that pervert, Akane?" Akane laughed nervously, but said nothing, waving them off. The crowds of students were still in an uproar. "Isn't that Ryoga Hibiki?" a boy's voice yelled out of the confusion. The noise quieted down a bit as everyone looked at him again, but this time more seriously. Rows and rows of boys heads bobbed up and down as they suddenly all recognised the black-haired boy with the pigtail. "You're right! That is him!" "You mean that's Ranma Saotome's boyfriend?" the girls asked. "You fools!" It was Kuno's voice. "That is not this Ryoga person. He IS Ranma Saotome! I recognise the demon! But it is indeed possible that the sorcerer can be twisted enough to be his own consort!" No one paid attention to him though, because they all thought it was just more of Kuno's insane blubbering. Another boy shouted, "Yeah, that's Ryoga Hibiki alright! He's the one who got that tent pole and made me rotate on-" Whoever was talking, his voice suddenly cut out. "Well he's the one who beat me up!" "Maybe he was trying to molest us!" It was Hiroshi's voice. "Yeah! We all thought he was just beating the crap out of us but it looks like he just wanted to cop a good feel!" This time it was Daisuke's voice that shouted. "Now that I think about it, when he was grabbing me from behind to drop kick me, what I thought was his foot, was probably his hand!" "He grabbed you from behind? Ewww!" "Maybe it wasn't even his hand!" Someone vomited. Some boys called out, "Rape! Rape!" There was more sounds of vomiting, retching and people being sick. The voice of Ranma's homeroom teacher said on the microphone, "Finally, they're here! Security, arrest that pervert!" There was a pause and some shuffling. "No, not Tatewaki Kuno! The boy-molester in the dress!" Ranma's eyes widened. "Hey that's not fair!" he tried to shout, but no one was listening. When he saw the guards coming, he thought briefly about putting up some resistance, but then abandoned that train of thought when he realised that it would just make matters worse. They'd probably think he was trying to molest them too! He turned and leaped back around the corner of the building, bounding off as fast as he could. His skirt billowed out behind him in the breeze. For a moment, the noise everyone was making cut out and there was pure silence in the wake of 'Ryoga Hibiki's' exit. "At least he was wearing boxers and not panties!" someone said in a vastly relieved tone. "I don't know. Panties would look damn hot on him!" a boy said. Everyone drop-kicked Kachi into the stratosphere. ~*~*~*~ Warnings were being aired on the public announcement speakers every few minutes. The whole of Furinkan High was on a steady lookout. If anyone saw the 'pervert boy molester,' people were to keep away from him because he was dangerous and should only be approached with 'extreme caution'. He was last seen entering the main school building. Hiroshi and Daisuke slapped each other on the back as they walked through an empty hallway. "Hah!" Hiroshi gloated. "That Hibiki kid really is a queer!" Daisuke lifted up his hand for another high five. "And you know what that means, don'tcha Hiroshi ol' pal?" His friend with the light-brown hair smacked him one, the sound echoing around the hallway. "It means that our hot little lady, Ranma-babe is ripe for the plucking!" "Yeah! Man 'o man! It's time for us two to score!" They stopped at one of the school's many restroom facilities. "Reckon he might be in here?" Hiroshi asked, opening the ladies' restroom door slightly. "It seems like just the place a guy like him would hang out in. Besides, it might be fun to see the inside of a girl's room." He leaned over and tried to peer inside. He'd always been curious about the facilities of the opposite sex. That brief glimpse he had when his mom brought him in as a kid was shrouded darkly in his memory. Damn, he thought, when all he saw was another door at the end of a short hallway. "C'mon, let's check it out anyway! We might never get a good enough reason later," Daisuke suggested, scratching at his messy dark brown hair. Hiroshi carefully opened the door, and walked in with his friend guarding his back. Then it was Daisuke's turn to open the next door. Daisuke had just put his hand on the door handle when inside they heard someone moving about. They paused. "Shhhh!" Hiroshi whispered, his hand cupping his mouth. "Slowly ... It might be him." Daisuke began to open the door ever so slowly. "Gotcha, man ..." he whispered back. As the door opened, they carefully squinted their eyes to look through the narrow crack. They glimpsed movement around the corner. "It's him!" Hiroshi shouted. Daisuke banged the door open and they both jumped into the restroom. "Thought you could hide, well-" They stopped and stared at the strange sight. Within the restroom, a dark haired boy, wearing an orange and black bandanna, was opening each and every one of the toilet stalls and then looking inside. As he studied each stall he periodically checked a dirty map held in one of his hands. It was all slimy with red and yellow stuff all over it. The boy finally noticed them as he finished looking in the last cubicle. "Um, excuse me, but where is Furinkan High school?" he asked, with a relieved tone in his voice. He lifted up his map to show them, causing Hiroshi and Daisuke to recoil backwards from the smelly thing. "I have been checking all of these doors but they do not go anywhere." After a moment of stunned silence, Daisuke shouted, "Man, that bandanna and haircut's not gonna disguise you! The stupid act's not gonna work either. You're Ryoga Hibiki, the pervert!" "Yeah, where's your dress, Hibiki? Trust you to hang out in a girl's bathroom!" Hiroshi said mockingly. The young man's eyes narrowed, "Yes, I am Ryoga Hibiki ..." He began to walk towards them, calmly and dangerously. He stuffed the map he was holding into the large travel pack slung on his shoulders and then cracked his knuckles ominously. Hiroshi and Daisuke flinched at the sound and began to realise that what they just did was pretty damn stupid. "Um, er ..." They tried to back away in panic, but they didn't get very far. The furious young man wearing the orange and black headband caught up to them very quickly. "And I'm not a pervert!" the bandanna'd boy shouted as he simultaneously uppercutted them with both his fists into the roof. Plaster and wood rained down everywhere in a hail of dust and debris. After the wreckage settled, he looked up at the two unconscious figures hanging by their heads in the ceiling. Their bodies swung limply like clock pendulums. "That will teach you to mock Ryoga Hibiki," the boy said solemnly, shaking his head at them. He looked around and scratched underneath his bandanna. "Now, how do I get out of here?" ~*~*~*~ "Eek! They're staring up our skirts!" "More sickos? Let's teach 'em that Furinkan girls won't stand for this!" The horde of girls started beating on the heads sticking up through the ground with their book-bags and purses, using mighty overhead swings. What they didn't notice was that Hiroshi and Daisuke were already unconscious. ~*~*~*~ Within classroom E of the second year, the students were sitting in little groups around the corners, speculating on where Hibiki would strike next and who the unfortunate boy would be. There was a sense of dread and fear to the stuffy air, so much so, that the teacher was outside the classroom standing on guard to protect more innocent boys from being molested and traumatised. Although it could've just been because the air was stuffy. Kuno's sweating and grunting every so often as he fantasised his usual wet daydreams wasn't exactly helping the air quality in the room either. "Hello. Would you like some more pictures of the golden-haired girl?" Kuno looked up from his vigorous fantasising, evident to anyone who looked from his flushed demeanour, to see a mysterious looking girl with long black hair which fell halfway down her back. Her brown eyes seemed to have a knowing look as she stood in front of his desk. In her hands was an array of small photographs. "My Golden One?" he asked, excited. "But as I live and breathe, it is a foregone conclusion!" He looked her over. "I have not seen you before. Are you a dealer such as the foul and possessed Nabiki Tendo? She is not present as of this moment as the spiritual parasites which bedevil my love are in fear of my righteous wrath." The girl smiled at him but didn't say anything. Instead she leaned over, displaying a more than adequate chest, as she spread the set of snapshots on his table. Kuno stared for a bit before looking down at the photographs. The edge of the desk he was holding abruptly snapped off in his hands with an audible crack. "Such sensuality! Such eroticism! Indeed, she shows her love for me within these darling poses! I'll take them!" He dropped the piece of wood on to the floor and quickly went to scoop them up. However, before he could grab them, the girl hammered him on the head with the flat of her palm, squashing his face into his own table. "Not right yet, lover boy! Five thousand each. That comes to twenty-five for the set." Kuno raised his head and ripped out his wallet. "But the mercenary Nabiki Tendo only charged three thousand!" But he slapped the money into her hand anyway. "Then this, Nabiki, wasn't getting their true worth," she replied, counting out the money. There was at least triple the amount she was due. She gave him a decidedly, rotten-looking smile then turned around to leave. "Wait!" She paused. "Yes, what do you want now? Remember that it's going to cost you." Kuno pocketed the pictures for viewing later, at his leisure. "Though you are not as fair and beautiful as my Golden One, you indeed do have a certain sinister charm," he announced, rubbing his head. "For that I would allow you to date with me!" He stood up to follow her. She backed away in panic, waving her hands at him. "N-No, I do not want to date you! Are you kidding, you fool? I wouldn't even if you paid me!" "But do you not want to be my Demoness of the Night?" Kuno said, approaching closer. "B-But I thought you liked the golden haired girl! Do you intend to two-time her?" Kuno stopped with a pained expression on his face. "No! The golden haired girl's beauty, purity and sensuality are unsurpassable... On the other hand, you are simply overflowing with a dark, evil and arousing energy of corruption. Is it a crime to be attracted to both of you?" "No, it's two-timing!" she said before turning around and running away. Kuno leaped after her. "But Demoness! I would date you!" ~*~*~*~ It was dark and musty inside the dark janitorial supply room. Numerous spiders had made their home in the cobwebs that adorned the corners. Heavy panting could be heard within the cramped spaces. Behind one of the storage boxes a girl with long black hair sighed. "I thought I'd never lose him," she said, very relieved. She reached behind her head and began pulling her hair off. It was a wig. Nabiki combed her short, dark brown hair with her fingers and looked around the interior of the small musty room. "Phew, this place stinks. What has that janitor been up to?" she asked aloud to herself. She stepped on something sticky. "On second thought, I don't want to know." She rubbed her aching bottom. "Ow, that Kuno-baka knows how to pinch," she lamented. "Maybe I'd better go get a check up." She tiptoed to the front of the room and was about to open the door when she heard running footsteps and a muffled shouting coming from outside. "Dark Demoness! Come and we shall revel in our own wicked juices!" She shuddered and let go of the doorknob. ~*~*~*~ "Bye, Akane! Be careful!" Sayuri warned as she turned into another street to walk home with Yuka. "There's no telling whether that pervert might show up and attack you." "Yes, Akane, look out! And tell Ranma to feel better since she went home sick. How could she have misjudged her boyfriend so much?" Yuka waved. "Anyway, see ya!" "See you tomorrow!" Akane said as she turned to continue walking. She watched her two friends hurry home in fear until they disappeared around the bend. She looked ahead and sighed as she ran her fingers through her long black hair. The footpath as well as the street was empty of people. It was so quiet now that she had the eeriest feeling that she was all alone in Nerima. That stupid boy-molester warning had most probably spread even further than the school and into the surrounding neighbourhood. "Psst!" a voice whispered to her. "Akane!" Akane was startled out of her reverie and looked at the cement wall that the voice seemed to come from. Sure enough, a girl, with blonde hair set in a pigtail and dressed in a tattered looking girl's uniform, somersaulted up from the other side to land on her feet atop the narrow edge. She began to walk effortlessly along the wall to match Akane's pace. In her hands she seemed to be struggling with something. "Ranma! What-" Turning to look down at her quickly, Ranma raised a finger to her mouth. "Ssh! Don't say a word about what happened today. It wasn't my fault!" "Oh sure. And now you're going to say that hot water just happened to fly out of the sky and land on your head?" Ranma's lips paused in mid-speech. "Well ... yeah! That's exactly what happened!" "Ranma, the least you could do is make up your own excuses! Did you finally want to advertise the fact that the beloved Ranma Saotome is really a boy? I'll admit that it would've worked perfectly, at least if they actually saw you change. As a matter of fact, the whole thing backfired on you. Now everyone at school thinks you're free from the relationship with your so-called boyfriend." "No, it wasn't like that, damn it." Ranma's deep blue eyes suddenly darkened in anger as she turned her head down to face her. "The question is, who would've had the most reason to splash me? Who was the one who practically forced me to go in girl's clothes in the first place?" "You're not blaming this on me, Ranma!" "Not you!" Ranma interjected. "Nabiki!" "It couldn't be Nabiki!" Akane protested. "She wouldn't do that. Underneath, she's really a very nice girl." Ranma blinked. "Well ... okay already," Akane admitted after a while. "I had to say it. After all, she is my sister." Ranma just shook her head. "Well, no matter what, I still think the whole rotten deal smacks of Nabiki's doing. Now I'm probably even in more trouble with our teacher since I had to skip the rest of our classes. Funny how when I really need cold water, it's so hard to find!" She looked down at the thing she was holding and seemed to struggle with it again. "Yes!" she said happily. She popped something into her mouth. "Finally!" Akane couldn't hold off her curiosity any more. "Ranma, what is that?" Ranma showed her the packet she was holding. "Here, you want some? They're called M&M's. They're damn hard to peel though." She threw some M&M shells over her shoulder. Akane gave her a quizzical look. "That curse did bring out your true form didn't it? And you wonder why you look the way you do." Ranma just looked confused. She put the packet of chocolates back into her pocket and shrugged. "Okay, if you don't want any, just say so ..." They turned the corner and reached the front of the Tendo Dojo. Ranma jumped off the wall to land by Akane's side. On the front steps, a tall girl with long brown hair and dressed in a full length dress and white apron was sweeping around with a broom. She looked up at them and smiled happily. "Hi Ranma! Hi Akane! How was school?" "Hi Kasumi! School was ... interesting. I just found out that Ranma, here, has been molesting some of the boys," Akane said, smiling ironically. Ranma just grunted and blew some strands of hair out of her eyes. Kasumi beamed at them. "That's nice. I'm glad you two enjoy school so much." She looked at Ranma as she continued to sweep some dirt off the step. "Ranma, you haven't forgotten your promise now have you? I'll just finish up here and get changed, then we can go. I'm sure you're looking forward to it." She smiled again. Ranma peered nervously at Akane out of the corner of her eye. "N-No, I haven't forgotten Kasumi ... that'll be great." "Ranma? What's this about going out with Kasumi?" Akane asked. She narrowed her eyes at the suddenly fidgeting, blonde girl. Kasumi rested the broom on the large, wooden double-doors of the dojo and turned back to face them. "Oh, Ranma and I will be going shopping for more clothes, Akane. I might also go buy us a new kettle. Sometimes, I just don't seem to be able to find it, so I thought with two, one would always be available." She smiled at her. "Do you want to come with us?" Suddenly her brown eyes shifted to the left and she got a confused expression on her face. "What's that you are trying to say, Ranma?" Akane looked behind her to see Ranma jumping up and down and waving her arms around. Her lips were mouthing what suspiciously looked like no's at Kasumi. When she saw Akane looking at her, she paused, arms outstretched. Laughing nervously, she started doing some pathetic starjumps and smiled weakly. "Um, I was just exercising Akane, ha ha ha, don't mind me!" Akane smacked her on the head with her palm. "Idiot. Just for that, I get to pick some clothes for you too! I'm definitely coming along, Kasumi!" "Of course, Akane," Kasumi replied. "After all, he is your fiance, and it's a wife's job to make sure her husband has suitable clothing." Akane scowled at the reminder. "Oh, count on me to pick him some suitable clothing! What size bra do you wear, Ranma?" she asked her, giving an evil grin. Ranma squinted and pretended to measure her bust, cupping them with her hands, then Akane's. "Oh, I don't know! Just make sure they're bigger than the ones you wear!" Akane smacked her again. "Ow! That one's gonna leave a lump!" she said, grumbling as she rubbed the top of her head. "Good! It was supposed to!" Kasumi smiled knowingly at them. "You two are such a cute couple. Oh, well, I guess I should get changed. You two should get changed also." She looked at Ranma with an air of disapproval. "Ranma, those clothes you are wearing don't look very proper." Akane smirked at the blonde pigtailed girl. "Yeah, Ranma. How could you let Nabiki's clothes get so tattered? Besides, you don't want to give any guys that see you a heart attack with what you're wearing. Let me get you another dress to wear since you like them so much, you'll even wear them as a boy," she said sarcastically. Ranma narrowed her blue eyes. "Hey, I'm not getting changed just so I can get into a new dress. This uniform was bad enough." She unhooked her arms from her backpack and set it on the floor so she could look down at herself. Admittedly, the dress was quite destroyed. "Ah, it's not like Nabiki could fit into this thing anymore, anyway ... and if I'm right about her ..." She laughed wickedly to herself. Akane looked at the beat up uniform, puzzled. "By the way, just how is that thing staying on? It looks like it's about to fall off or something." She poked at the flimsy looking dress. Abruptly, the shoulder straps gave way to a loud snap while the thin white short sleeved shirt underneath simultaneously disintegrated into a pile of thread around Ranma's waist. "Woops!" she said, suddenly crossing her arms over her naked breasts, but not before Akane got a glimpse at how perfectly formed and firm they looked. Ranma hurriedly grabbed onto the blue skirt with one hand also, as it was beginning to slip. "I guess I will take you up on that offer, Akane! Meet you in your room!" She swung the dojo doors open and ran through, one hand holding the dress up, the other trying to cover her abundant chest. Akane closed her open mouth. She silently chanted to herself, I like boys, like boys, like boys, like boys, like boys - ugh! What am I thinking! She slapped herself in the face. "Oh my," Kasumi said, as she picked up the broom that had fallen down. "I do hope no one saw her." Akane looked around frantically. Sure enough, there was an old man on the street, lying on his back and wheezing loudly. Panicking, she ran over to him and knelt by his side. "Quick, Kasumi! You know CPR don't you?" However, when she looked back, she saw her older sister already pumping her clasped hands on the chest of their father who was lying in a heap just inside the dojo. Soun's eyes were locked open, only the whites showing, as Kasumi quickly and efficiently applied her medical knowledge to bring their father out of his crisis. "Dad?! I'll have to do this one myself. Ranma no baka!" ~*~*~*~ Some hours later at the ginza... "Ranma? Where the heck is he? This is supposed to be _his_ shopping trip!" Akane looked slowly around the street and in front of each shop for any sign of the blond-haired girl. "He was here just a moment ago," Kasumi replied, a little puzzled. "Just look for any signs of disturbance ... ah ha!" She pointed to the large crowds of women forming in the sidewalk some way back behind them. They were so loud with all their shouting and shoving that even they could hear the noise from where they were. "That looks suspicious." Akane and Kasumi headed off in the direction of the massive queue that was still being formed. When they got there, Akane could hardly see or hear anything, the women were too loud. From what they could see of what they were lining up in front of, it was some sort of clothing shop. "Wherever there are crowds, just look for Ranma to be in the centre of it," Akane tried to shout above the noise. Kasumi said something, but Akane couldn't hear her. Sometimes Akane wondered if her older sister even had a voice which could be raised. Akane tried to slip through the massive crowd to get to the front of the store, but whenever she tried to enter through a gap, it would immediately close up, with several women huffing in indignation, thinking that she was trying to push in. "Kasumi it's no good, we'll just have to ... Kasumi?" Akane turned around to find her sister but she wasn't there. "Kasumi!-" She turned back around and gaped in astonishment. Kasumi was calmly and easily walking into the crowd, the women letting her through and dispersing as if there were an invisible bulldozer in front of her older sister. "Excuse me, thank you!" Kasumi was calling out. "Oh look, Akane, isn't that Ranma? Doesn't he look cute?" The crowd finally opened up enough so that Akane could finally see through. Sure enough, there was Ranma standing in the shop window. Who happened to be wearing a dress. Not the dress that Akane laughingly made her wear earlier since Ranma still had no clothes to wear, but a long, beautiful, black dress that looked to be very expensive. An indecent amount of cleavage was exposed and the skirt had a long vertical slit so that one of her slim legs was showing. To match the dress, she also had on black gloves up to her elbows and high-heels. "Ranma?? What the heck are you doing up there?" Akane asked horrified. Ranma stumbled forward awkwardly up to the window on her unstable shoes and mouthed something, which Akane couldn't hear. Then she tapped on the glass of the show window and pointed up. Akane raised her head and saw that the shop was one of those exclusive, designer shops for women's clothing. Ranma then pointed to herself desperately, then pointed backwards to a stern looking woman blocking the exit to the shop window. Akane rushed into the shop hurriedly. When she got to the entrance of the shop window, she found that same stern-looking woman that she had spotted earlier. "Look, lady," Akane said, "You better let him out now." The woman sniffed. "I think not. That pretty young woman is going to make me a fortune modelling for my designer clothing shop." Akane feinted to the right and shouldered past the woman on the left. "No way! I'm taking him out right now!" She ran up to Ranma, who had a relieved expression on her face, and grabbed her arm. She began to pull the pretty blonde with her quickly. "I think not!" the woman repeated, also grabbing on to Ranma's other arm. "Owwww!" Ranma shouted. "You're stretching me!" "Quiet!" Akane said angrily. "You're the one who wanted to go shopping!" ~*~*~*~ "Alright! Finally a real clothing store!" Ranma exclaimed happily as she read the sign on one of the shops. "I can't believe they have one of these babies here in Nerima!" She swung the door open and jumped inside, leaving Akane and Kasumi outside to stare. "General China Co.?" Akane said, shaking her head. Displayed in the store window were all clothes of the type Ranma wore. The loose fitting trousers and long or short sleeved shirts with wooden ties. All in a variety of colours. Even an ensemble of the green outfit and hat Ranma sometimes wore was displayed in the corner. Kasumi just smiled. "Well at least he found what he was looking for," she said as she opened the door and went inside. Akane followed. Inside, Ranma was like a whirlwind, grabbing up everything in sight. "I'll get this, I'll get this, and this, this, this, and this..." Akane was worried. "Do we have enough money for this?" "Oh, don't worry about that Akane," Kasumi replied. "I have plenty. Besides, I owe him this after his clothes were ruined." One of the store owners was jumping around like a happy kitten. "We're saved! She's just like that boy who used to buy all of our clothing before we moved here!" ~*~*~*~ Ranma was in the fitting room, staring at herself in the mirror. "I really should have changed before trying them all out..." she lamented. Then she shrugged. She knew what her clothes felt like in her girl form anyway. It was a certain looseness. She had just slipped into a pair of fresh boxers and put on a new blue shirt when she suddenly began to have a feeling that she was being watched. She closed her eyes and concentrated on that feeling. It was coming from directly in front of her. She opened her eyes, to stare at her reflected blue irises in the mirror. The mirror. It was the mirror! She reared back her arm and smashed through, shattering the glass. Her arm felt empty air through the other side. She was right! She quickly pivoted around in a spin-kick to clear the remaining bits of mirror and jumped through. What she saw inside shocked her. Two male security guards and a female store manager were sitting behind a table which directly faced the opening where the (Two-way?) mirror used to be. They had been watching her undress! One guard was all red in the face and seemed to be shaking the table. Even worse, the other was operating a video camera. He had been taping her! Ranma was furious. "You's are all sickos!" she shouted as she leaped over the table and punched the red-faced guard in the face knocking him out. He fell over backwards, with his pants around his legs. Ranma turned away to deal with the video-taping guard, a short, wiry guy, but found that he was high-tailing it out of there, clutching a video tape to his chest. "Precious, musn't let our preciouss be sstolen, no..." he mumbled as he ran haphazardly to the back of the room where the door was. "Wait! Hold it, you perv!" She began to leap after him, but something was holding her leg. She looked down to find the female store manager attached to it. "No, mistress! Me! Punish me next! I'm a very bad girl! Punish me!" Ranma sighed. The situations this girl body were getting her in to were getting way too weird. ~*~*~*~ Ryoga was sitting on a trashcan in some unknown alleyway. He was lost again. He idly scratched at the bruising all around his arms and upper chest. Who would have thought that girls could hit so hard? And why were they all shouting that he was a pervert? He was just lucky he had escaped from that place in one piece. And he still hadn't found out where Furinkan High was. Suddenly he heard some voices around the corner of the building. "Damn it, Akane," a boy's voice was saying. It was a very familiar voice. "Can't you hold my shopping bag? My arms hurt like hell after what you did to them! And the scuffle I had back there. And on top of that, how did those Furinkan boys find us? They think I'm free now or something. We were lucky to lose them after that last corner so I could get changed." A girl's voice said something, but Ryoga couldn't hear what she said. "Yeah, that means all my trouble with pretending to be some guy named Ryoga Hibiki is just some waste!" Blood rushed into Ryoga's face. Now everything made sense! He shrugged off his travel pack and jumped off the trashcan, running around the corner. This impostor will pay! ~*~*~*~ "At least I got some new clothes though," Ranma said, relieved, as he tugged at his blue shirt, an exact replica of one of his old Chinese clothing. "Even with the discount because of what happened in the clothes shop, it still ended up costing quite a bit. Thanks a lot, Kasumi - hey!" He was suddenly splashed by cold water. He, or she, looked up to see a crowd of kids run past playing water fights. However, before she could even let out a groan from being forcibly changed back into her girl form, a figure blurred in front of her and she felt a sudden pain as something knocked her away from Akane and Kasumi and began to squeeze her. "Impostor!" a deep voice growled. "I have you now! - Eep!" "What the heck?" Ranma shouted as she realised that she was caught in a powerful bear-hug. She looked up to see a somehow, familiar looking boy staring absolutely terrified at her. "Y-you're that girl!!!" Ranma struggled a bit, but could not move at all within the tight embrace. Her breasts being mashed into the hard muscled chest in front of her was causing enough pain that black dots started swirling around in her vision. She seemed to recall something about the huge strength that held her captive and just had a feeling that she knew this boy. "H-huh? Do I know you?" Then something hard poked into Ranma's stomach. It felt like a big rounded stick. Ranma felt that she somehow knew what was poking her. Then an image came into her mind. "Arrrgghhhhhh!" she screamed. "Gross!!!" The boy's face which had already been red, suddenly blazed even redder. Ranma felt his hands wrapped around her sides twitch around as if in recognition that he held a girl within his arms. A very shapely and beautiful girl. "I-it's not what it l-looks like! I thought you were -" Ranma felt the boy's 'thing' poke her even harder into her abdomen, so hard it began to hurt. "Gross! Ow! Gross!" she shouted as loud as she could. She struggled even harder, in complete panic, but it was useless. She looked up to see the boy who held her captive look a bit dizzy. Then his face twitched and everything turned red. Huge streams of blood exploded everywhere, all over Ranma's face. Ranma felt herself growing bigger and realised that the hot blood splattering all over her had triggered the curse to change her back into a boy. The grip around Ranma's sides loosened and he fell backwards on his butt as the boy in front of him passed out and toppled over in a dead faint, cracking the cement with his head. Ranma groaned and stood up. "Who is that, Ranma?" Akane asked, still in shock at what happened. "I-I don't know-" Ranma edged himself over the boy who attacked him and looked over his face. The thin thread of recognition he had felt earlier suddenly exploded in his mind's eye. "Wait! Wait! I know him!" He turned around to Akane and Kasumi standing off to the side. "That's Ryoga Hibiki!" Akane had a sarcastic look on her face as if that explained anything. Kasumi just smiled at him fondly and waved. "But I thought _you_ were Ryoga Hibiki, Ranma," Akane said in a voice devoid of expression. "No, no, there really was a Ryoga Hibiki! I just forgot all about him ... um, he went to my old school and he's my friend!" "Friends don't usually jump out from nowhere and attack you, Ranma." Ranma rubbed his chin as he began to explain when he realised that his face was all wet and sticky. He looked down at his new clothes. "Arggh! Yuck! His blood is all over me!" He looked around for his shopping bag which held the rest of his clothes and sighed in relief when he saw them lying safely at Akane's feet. Lucky she had been holding them or all of it would have been ruined. A cough came from behind him and Ranma spun around quickly. The boy that he thought was his friend, Ryoga Hibiki, stood up, swaying a bit. He took off a bandanna from his forehead and wiped his bloody nose. Ranma was surprised to see another bandanna underneath the one that Ryoga wore. How many of those does he have, Ranma thought, as Ryoga sniffed loudly and threw the bloody bandanna away. Ryoga looked around warily as if looking for someone. "You're Ryoga Hibiki, aren't you?" Ranma asked, happy to see his old friend. Ryoga turned back to him and narrowed his eyes. "I recognise your voice! You're the one who said that he was impersonating me!" He cracked his knuckles. "I've had a lot of trouble thanks to you! Now you pay!" Ranma stepped backwards. "But don't you recognise me, Ryoga? I'm your old buddy, Ranma Saotome!" Ryoga flinched, but then his angry expression came back. "What? Now you're trying to impersonate a girl!" Ranma closed his open mouth. "Ryoga! Did some of your brains fly out of your nose as well? _I_ am Ranma! Ranma Saotome! And I'm a boy!" But Ryoga wasn't listening. The bandanna'd boy picked up a bamboo umbrella from the ground that Ranma hadn't noticed earlier and rushed forward in an angry charge. Ranma dodged, but Ryoga smashed the pathway with his umbrella and the force of the impact caused rocks to explode everywhere and knock him backwards. After a short flight, he landed hard on his back and the breath expelled from his lungs as he slid away a short distance. He opened his eyes and smiled as he realised he had landed underneath Akane's skirt. "A-Akane! Why aren't you wearing any panties?!" he asked. "W-Wha?" Akane screeched. "Just kidding! Hey! Ow!" he shouted as Akane kicked him back into the air. He turned a somersault and landed back on his feet in front of Ryoga. Ryoga's brown eyes were blazing. "How dare you dirty my beloved Ranma's name by trying to impersonate her! I won't have it!" He raised his arms and attacked. Ranma dodged frantically as he sidestepped. "Ryoga, what is the matter with you? Don't you remember me? Why are you saying, 'beloved'?" he asked, with a sinking feeling in his stomach. "First you impersonate me and make me look like a pervert or something and you won't believe all the trouble I've had looking for the girl I fell in love with in China! I found out her name was Ranma Saotome as I tried to follow her and now I find you are also trying to blacken her name as well! I won't have it!" "Oh no! Not you too!" Ranma squeaked, his face turning red. Then suddenly he paused. "Wait. You followed us to China?" Ryoga swung his umbrella again, but this time Ranma dodged and kicked it out of his hands, before flipping backwards. "I can't remember how or why I went to China," Ryoga said, his forehead creasing in thought for a second. Then it cleared as he grew a love-sick puppy dog expression. "But it doesn't matter as I consider that the luckiest day of my life as it's where I met _her_. And now you pay for my humiliation!" ~*~*~*~ Akane watched them fight still puzzled over who the boy was and whether he really was the real Ryoga Hibiki. "That boy also seems to fight very well," Kasumi observed. Akane was getting worried as she had already noticed that and realised that Ranma could get badly hurt. "God, this umbrella is heavy! I can't even move it!" a boy's voice said. Akane looked around and saw two boys trying to lift the umbrella that 'Ryoga' had gotten kicked out of his hands earlier. She ran over to them and stared wide-eyed at the crater it had made. "It must weigh tons!" the other boy exclaimed as he tried to pull it up also and failed. Akane stepped forward and had her try as the two boys stepped backwards. Using all her strength, she grasped the handle of the umbrella and lifted as hard as she could. She only succeeded in lifting it a few measly centimetres when she had to let go. She could not lift it up at all. Then she thought about Ryoga lifting it up with one hand. She ran over panicked to where Ranma and he were fighting and trashing up the street. "Ranma! Watch out!" she called. "He has the strength of a monster!" "Wha-what?" Ranma said, as he sidestepped another one of Ryoga's attacks. Akane's eyes widened when she saw Ryoga smash a telephone pole with his hands clasped together, knocking it towards Ranma, who jumped out of the way. There was huge crash as the pole smashed into a building cleaving right through it and sending debris flying everywhere. "Ryoga, you idiot! You could hurt someone like that!" Ranma shouted. "Exactly!" Ryoga answered as he pulled his cloth belt off and snapped it at Ranma. It missed, but Akane's breath caught when she saw it heading towards Kasumi. "Kasumi!" Akane called out desperately. Ranma saw her and dived, knocking Kasumi over. As they flew down backwards, Kasumi's long hair rose up above her head. The cloth blade spinning at them like a large shuriken passed over them, but not before shearing right through Kasumi's hair, severing part of it from her head. Suddenly, time seemed to stand still, with Akane, Ryoga and all the people watching as they realised what had happened. Everything was silent. Ranma stood up and helped Kasumi to her feet. Kasumi just stood there, wide-eyed as if in denial. Long locks of brown hair landed all around their feet. Kasumi bent over and picked up the long lock that still had her favourite blue ribbon tied to it. She felt at the back of her head at the jagged hair with her left hand. Akane ran over to them. The sound of her footsteps was the only audible sound in the deep silence. When she got there, Ranma asked, a little scared as he stared at Akane's older sister, "K-Kasumi?" He waved his hand in front of her eyes, but she just stood there, feeling at the back of her head. "She's in shock," Akane said, feeling as if this was a dream on how surreal everything looked. The cause of it all walked up to them. "Well, at least she's not hurt," Ryoga said nervously, looking at Kasumi's blank expression. Suddenly, life flared within Kasumi's eyes, which abruptly glowed red. "You! This is your fault! Die!" she screamed in a voice, which did not sound as much like Kasumi but as a banshee from the fires of hell. With a massive punch, she sent Ryoga through the building across the street, leaving a Ryoga shaped hole in the brick wall. Akane's mouth dropped open. Ranma tried to tip-toe away, but Kasumi saw him and gave him an equally massive standing roundhouse kick which sent Ranma arcing high up in the air, before crashing into a fire hydrant, smashing it and causing water to fly everywhere. Ranma's unconscious body, draped over it, turned female. Akane and the other people began to step backwards in fear of their lives as well, when Kasumi blinked and the horrifying evil red colour disappeared to turn back into their serene friendly brown colour. "Oh my," Kasumi said. "I do hope they aren't hurt." Akane, still a bit scared continued to edge backwards, but when she saw that the danger had passed, sighed and looked at Ranma. "Well at least Ranma got the blood washed off. You want me to try and cut your hair back into shape, Kasumi?" For a moment, Kasumi lost her usual serene expression and looked panicked. "Oh my! That's okay, Akane, let's just go to the hair-dressers." "Check out the babe!" someone suddenly shouted. "I think you can see her tits through her wet shirt!" "I think we better get Ranma first," Akane said. ~*~*~*~ "So how do you like it Ranma?" Ranma looked at Kasumi in the corner of her eye. She was still a bit scared of her. Kasumi was damn strong. In fact, she was so beat up, Akane was helping her walk by letting Ranma lean on her shoulder, her arm wrapped around Akane's neck as she limped along. She looked at Kasumi's just-above-the-shoulder length brown hair which actually made her seem younger and more attractive. In fact, she almost didn't even look like Kasumi anymore. That air of motherliness was gone. What was left seemed to be a serene looking, girlish teenager. "I-I think you look great, Kasumi ..." she said carefully. "I wonder what Doctor Tofu will think," Kasumi said with an almost a bemused expression on her face. They were on their way to Doctor Tofu's now, since Ranma had gotten so banged up. Akane just looked at her sister with a strange expression. An almost longing expression. "You think I should get my hair cut too, Ranma?" she asked. "Um." Ranma wasn't sure what to say. This was dangerous territory she sensed. Better bring it back to familiar ground. "If you want, I'll go find Ryoga and he can cut it for you," she said, smiling. "Very funny," Akane said. "Maybe we should have just let the hairdresser fix your hair up as well." "No-one is going to touch my hair!" Ranma said forcibly, using her free hand to stroke her blonde pigtail. "No matter how much she offered to pay me, and I'm not going to model for her either!" Suddenly she realised something. "Hey, since we're on our way to the Doc's, don't you think I should get changed back to a guy? You know what happened last time, Akane." "Um, yeah, I think you better," Akane said, beginning to sound a little depressed. "No, no, no," Kasumi said, looking at Ranma out of the corner of her eye. "It'll take too long to find you some hot water." Akane looked at Kasumi. "Are you feeling alright, Kasumi? You're acting kind of weird." Ranma agreed with her. "Never better!" Kasumi exclaimed. "Oh look, here we are, so there's no use with finding hot water now, anyway." Ranma looked and sure enough the clinic was right in front of them. There was a familiar looking fat panda sweeping the steps. "Hey, what's Pop doing here?" The panda lifted a sign. It said, "I work here, boy." Ranma laughed. "Will wonders never cease! I guess Mister Tendo must have finally forced him to get off his lazy butt." The panda just wore a superior expression as if he was above them all. Kasumi opened the door for them and Ranma limped in with Akane helping her. "Oh, Doctor Tofu! We need your help," Kasumi called out in a melodic voice as she opened the door to the examination room. When she opened the door, they saw the doctor inside with Nabiki lying face down on the patients bed. Doctor Tofu was examining her abused bottom. "So you see Doctor," Nabiki was saying, "the pain has been so bad lately that-" "K-Kasumi!" Doctor Tofu stammered. His glasses fogged up. "Kasumi?" Nabiki shouted in panic as she tried to squirm off the bed. Too late. Doctor Tofu held her down and began smacking her bottom. Hard. "Do you notice anything different?" Kasumi giggled. "Owwwww! Arghhh! Owwwww!" Nabiki screamed. "I-It's your dress r-right?" Doctor Tofu stammered, punctuating his speech with more blows on Nabiki's posterior. "Owwwww!" Ranma limped in and when she saw what was happening, a huge grin came to her mouth. Maybe this day won't be all that bad after all. "Hi Doc!" she purred seductively. "When do you have time to examine me? I hurt all over." She gave a girlish groan and ran her hands down her shapely body. Doctor Tofu's glasses shattered and the frame began to melt down his face. "T-that girl!" he shouted. "Um, er, as soon as I finish with Akane here. Akane hold still while I treat you." He held Nabiki down even tighter as she tried to squirm away, then brought his open palm so hard on her cherry-red bottom that the bed she was lying on gave a loud crack as it snapped down the middle. Nabiki screamed in agony, then fainted. "Doctor Tofu, you're so funny," Kasumi giggled. ---- End of Part 5. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* - Thanks a to Freemage for the suggestion of some new shopping scenes. C&C appreciated! Ace Sanchez (email: jsa@fl.net.au | www: http://jsa.users.fl.net.au/)