Chapter 1. Silence Falls

The bench across from the train station in Fukuoka was hard. Ranma Saotome shifted around, struggling futilely to find a more comfortable position. With a sigh, he turned halfway around to look at his father Genma, master of the Saotome School of Anything Goes martial arts. They had spent the past several months in China and had returned to Japan only last evening, but their homecoming was far from joyous. It was a bare two weeks ago that Genma had dragged him to a remote valley in China, supposedly for training, and they had both ended up cursed. Now, whenever they were splashed with cold water, his father would turn into a panda bear and he himself would change gender and become a girl. Only hot water could restore their true bodies.

At the moment, though, they were both in their true forms. The older man sat at an angle, presenting mostly his back to Ranma's view while he busily scribbled on a postcard. The boy regarded his father with little favor. It was a long time since he had felt much respect for Genma, outside of the old man's martial arts skills, and what feelings remained had taken a severe beating as a result of his curse. He couldn't help but feel that his pop was preparing to launch some new stupidity to screw up their lives even worse. Anyway, he was bored.

“Who are you writing to, pop?” Ranma asked. Immediately after posing the question, he flinched and waved a hand in front of his face to shoo away a curious bee. It buzzed off in his father's direction.

Genma replied in a deliberately casual tone which dismissed the question as unimportant. “An old friend of mine who lives in Nerima. We trained together at one time, many years ago. We're going to stay with him for a while, and I want to let him know that we're coming.”

It sounded reasonable enough, and in another time and place Ranma would probably have accepted this answer, never learning what his father had planned until after they arrived in Nerima. However, in this time and place the bee chose to land on Genma's hand, causing him to drop the postcard as he shook the insect off. Ranma picked the card up to return it to his father, but caught a glimpse of the words, “Bringing Ranma from China.” He drew his hand back again before Genma could snatch the card. Looking more closely, those were the only words present aside from the partially completed address which mentioned Tokyo and the first letters of Nerima.

The boy looked up from the card to stare into his father's eyes, his own dark with accusation. “Exactly why do you need to tell your old friend that you're bringing me? Okay, I can see you telling him that you're coming, or that you and I are coming. What I want to know is, why the emphasis on me?”

Genma laughed nervously, a sure sign that he was about to lie. “Heh heh. No reason, boy. No reason at all. It's just that he's never met you, and I want to let him know he's finally going to.”

Ranma shook his head. “You're lying, pop.” His face darkened as the memories of one too many recent misadventures fueled his anger. “I've had enough of your crap! Now tell me the truth!”

Genma began to sweat. Ever since Jusenkyo, the boy had been growing less manageable. “Well, my friend practices a variation of our martial arts style. I am just informing him that he will be acquiring another student for his techniques. Wouldn't you like to learn them?”

Ranma continued looking his fidgeting father in the eyes. “You're still lying, old man. If that were the reason, we could have visited him any time in the last ten years. I still don't understand why we came back to Japan, instead of looking for a cure to these curses. Okay, Shampoo was chasing us, but we've avoided her so far. We could keep right on avoiding her. So why is going to see this guy more important than looking for a cure?”

Genma's mouth twisted. ‹Damn the ungrateful boy,› he thought to himself. ‹I just know he's going to take this wrong.›

“Well, boy, it's like this. My friend and I are both masters of the Anything Goes school. When we got rid ... er, when we attained our mastership, we agreed that the families, um, the schools, should be united in the next generation.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Ranma asked suspiciously.

Genma chuckled nervously again. “It's, uh, very simple. You have to marry ...”

He didn't get any further. Ranma grabbed the front of his father's gi and twisted, choking off his words. “You think you're going to tell me who to marry?! Are you out of your mind?!”

Genma knocked the hand away. “You'll do as you're told, boy! Honor requires that ...”

Again he got no further, biting off his sentence and nearly his tongue in order to dodge a kick which would have taken his head off. The fight lasted less than ten minutes but resulted in considerable property damage. When Ranma finally stood back shakily, his father lay crumpled and unconscious at the base of a wall. A brick wall now badly cracked, with several of its bricks lying on top of and around Genma.

Unnoticed, the crumpled postcard rolled down the street, pushed by an erratic breeze. Ranma did not even know the name of his father's “old friend,” the person to whom it was supposed to have been sent. Genma had been interrupted before he had written down that vital information.

Ranma realized that if he wished to escape any further moronic schemes then he had to make plans quickly, before his father woke up again. There was no way that he was going to let the old man pick out a bride for him! The curse he'd been saddled with was horrible enough. His mind shrank from the thought of what sort of girl his idiot father would choose.

What he really wanted was to go back to China, to try to find a cure for the curse. To do so, he'd need money. He'd also have to be careful, so that Genma wouldn't find him. He quickly ransacked his father's pack, but only found forty-five hundred yen and a couple of train tickets for Nerima. He wouldn't be able to do a lot of traveling around China with that.

Briefly Ranma sat back and considered his next step. He wasn't a thief and a fraud like his old man. If he was going to go back to China, he'd need more money first, so he had to find some way to raise it. That meant finding someplace to stay in Japan, where his father hopefully wouldn't look for him. He looked at the tickets again and smiled. The last place the old man would look would be the very city to which he'd planned to take Ranma. Also, Tokyo was a big place, where there might be lots of opportunities.

It would have been suspicious to take one ticket and leave the other, so Ranma took both. He hoped his father would assume that he had taken them to cash them in. He quickly ran back to the docks, then openly asked around for information on ships going to China. After that, he ran back to the train station, trying to avoid drawing attention, and approached the building from the opposite direction. There was no guarantee that his father would be fooled, but at least there was a chance.

A couple of hours later a cursing and penniless Genma Saotome stepped into the surf and changed instantly into a panda bear. They had only just completed this swim in the other direction yesterday! He promised himself that he'd give the dishonorable boy a thorough beating when he finally caught up to the lad.

At that same moment, Ranma was snoring as he leaned back in his comfortable seat aboard the train bound for Nerima.

Ranma emerged from the Nerima train station to find a light, chill drizzle in progress. He immediately changed to a shorter, buxom girl. He scowled down at his transformed chest, then transferred the scowl up at the clouds as if to blame them for the indignity. With a sigh of resignation, he set off as a female.

It rained off and on all day, frustrating his attempts to change back to male. Ranma soon found that it would be harder than he expected to find some sort of long term work for a sixteen year old in the big city, especially as a girl and one without a parent to provide permission. His previous experiences in more rural settings proved to be of little guidance in this job search. It was also obvious to him that he would not be able to start looking for a permanent place to live until after he could find a job.

Darkness fell, and Ranma was wet, exhausted, cold and hungry. It was time to spend a little of the money he had taken from Genma and get something to eat. He began to look around for an inexpensive restaurant. Then, as he walked past an alley, a demonic shape suddenly leaped out at him.

Actually, it was only an ordinary cat, but for Ranma that was demon enough. Ever since Genma had put him through the torturous training to learn the neko-ken, Ranma had been deathly afraid of all cats. With a high-pitched scream, the red-haired girl turned and ran in the opposite direction. The cat, possibly out of sheer perversity, gave chase.

Ranma gave no thought to his surroundings, his entire attention instead on escaping the monster behind him. He turned down another alley, running as fast as he could. Without slowing down, he took a moment to look back over his shoulder to see if the creature was gaining on him. Unfortunately, this meant that he didn't see the ladder of a fire escape which had been left hanging down. He crashed into it headlong, and the fire escape won. Ranma slumped to the pavement, unconscious.

Akane Tendo was hurrying home, carrying a sack of things Kasumi, her oldest sister, had asked her to pick up. She was supposed to have gone out for them earlier, but had forgotten until a little while ago. That was why she was taking a short cut across a part of town she usually avoided. It was slightly run down with an unsavory reputation, but that didn't bother her unduly. She was, after all, a highly skilled martial artist who made mincemeat of a few dozen boys every morning at school. So even if she did encounter a few perverts, who weren't likely to be armed with worse than knives, they'd be the ones to regret the encounter.

She quickly passed the mouths of several dark alleys, barely glancing down them as she did so. Then her hurrying feet slowed to a stop. What had she seen down that last alleyway? Her mind replayed the image. An aura suddenly blazed around the teenager. Akane dropped her sack and ran back.

Ranma came to feeling muzzy headed and slow. He was lying on his back, on what felt like pavement. Memory began to return. He stiffened as he remembered the cat which had been chasing him. The neko-ken hovered on the edge of his consciousness, but he fought against it, not wanting to lose himself to it especially when he had only just reawakened. Then he realized that there was something in his mouth. He attempted to spit it out. It wouldn't budge and when he tried to grab it to pull it out, he found that he was unable to move his hands, or his feet. Wondering what was going on, he opened his eyes.

Tall buildings swam dizzily around him, making him nauseous. Or more likely, nausea was making the buildings dance. Whichever it was, he closed his eyes again. Then he snapped them back open, as more of his present circumstances registered through the haze of pain and sickness.

He realized that he was naked, since he could feel the rough pavement in contact with his skin all along his back. He was naked, and three scruffy young men looked down at him, grinning. Their grins were quite the most disturbing sight he had ever seen. Raising his head slightly, fighting nausea to do so, Ranma saw that he was still female, his nudity making that fact very obvious.

Ranma tried to struggle, achieving nothing. Turning his head to one side, he saw that his wrist was bound with a thick rope. The movement of his head nearly made him vomit, and a wave of weakness passed over him. ‹I have a concussion,› he told himself in rising concern. ‹And why the hell am I naked? Was I injured somehow? But why am I tied down?›

“Well, are you ready to play, little lady?” one of the men asked in a mocking tone. He knelt between the red-haired girl's legs, taking perverse pleasure from the sequence of emotions on her face. His hand reached forward.

Ranma's subconscious stopped suppressing the knowledge of what was going on, allowing him to understand his situation in a burst of terror-filled clarity. He tried struggling hard, hoping to break the ropes holding him, but he felt drained of all strength. Desperately he tried to scream for help, but the gag in his mouth defeated the effort, allowing him no more than a grunt.

Ranma then felt fingers probing him in a place which as a male he should not have. He screamed his hatred of the man between his legs, but little of the sound made it past the obstruction in his mouth. He continued to struggle, to no effect. A blackness of despair swept through his soul. All of his vaunted strength, all of his superb martial arts skill — all of it absolutely meaningless.

He shouted words at himself, trying to boost his confidence, trying to shut out what was happening. ‹I'm a martial artist! I'm the best! I can defend myself against anyone and anything! I ... am ... not ... helpless!› He yanked in vain at the ropes, robbed by his injury of the strength he desperately needed. In the back of his mind his imagination responded with dark laughter, as if the universe itself were mocking his proclamation.

Ranma whimpered in humiliated pain as the fingers dug deeper, with no attempt at gentleness, and the man's other hand pawed roughly at his chest. He tried to shut out the thought of what would happen when the fingers were withdrawn. The other men laughed at the sounds that came through the gag, making crude remarks to one another about what they were going to do. Ranma felt fear mounting rapidly to terrible proportions, building on top of the previous fear inspired by the cat. He even prayed that the cat would return and drive him into the neko-ken state, which might give him a chance to slice the ropes and escape.

His attention was drawn back to the beast between his legs by the ominous sound of a zipper. As he looked at his attacker's grinning face, his emotions painted the man as akin to some evil tomcat, inspiring a similar fear. Ranma tried to scream again, but felt his throat closing up in panic, so that no sound at all emerged. His mind felt like it was about to shatter as the man leaned over him. ‹Please, please! Somebody! Anybody! Don't let this happen!›

As the first man lowered himself over the thrashing girl, one of the others suddenly went flying past above him. He crashed into a wall beyond with a sickening thud. The other two spun around, and Ranma looked as well. There was a teenage girl standing there, with long black hair, and she was in a martial arts stance. In that moment, she was by far the most beautiful sight that Ranma had ever seen. The two remaining men tried to attack her simultaneously, but with economical blows she soon had them lying in crumpled heaps as well.

When the girl ran over and knelt beside him, Ranma's view of her suddenly disappeared as his eyes filled with tears. It was all he could do not to break down completely. The girl spoke softly, soothingly, as she ripped the gag off and then started working on the knots. “Shh. Shh. It's all right now. No one's going to hurt you. You're safe now.” She continued in this vein until she had all of the ropes untied, at which point Ranma curled himself into a ball.

Akane stood back, taking a moment to assess the situation. The other girl's clothing was lying on the ground nearby, undamaged. Apparently, the would-be rapists had taken the time to undress her. There was also a huge pack, presumably belonging to the girl as well. She pondered whether to call the police, knowing that she should. However, crimes of this sort all too often weren't punished nearly as severely as they ought to be, and the girl would likely be victimized a second time by the legal process.

She didn't want to put the distraught girl through such an ordeal. But neither did she wish to let these three hoodlums off without any kind of punishment. That's when she had a wonderfully evil idea. She figured that the three men would be unconscious for a few hours, but she went over to each of them and gave them a few extra blows to make sure of it, in addition to assuring them a great deal of pain when they did awaken. As soon as she could get to a telephone, she would give that pompous but rich idiot Tatewaki Kuno a call and tell him that some fools had attempted to molest her, and the location of the alley in which she had left them. She might despise Kuno and his proclamations of love for her, but she could be sure that he would see to it that these three would be punished for such a deed, in ways probably too horrible to describe.

Now to help the girl whose tears were starting to slow. Akane picked up the clothing, noting the boxers with surprise, and carried them over. Quietly, she said, “I have your clothes here. Come on, let's get you dressed, okay?”

Ranma looked up slowly, blinking away tears. He looked at Akane, then very slowly nodded. Akane slipped the boxers over his feet and pulled them up his legs.

While doing so, trying to speak as gently as possible, she said, “My name's Akane Tendo. What's yours?”

Ranma opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

He blinked several times, then tried again. Still there was no sound. He reached up and massaged his throat, but it didn't help. He looked and felt very frustrated.

Akane asked, “Can't you speak?”

Mindful of his splitting headache and the probable cause, Ranma shook his head very slightly.

“Have you been mute for a long time?” Akane asked next.

Ranma shook his head again.

“Is this something that just happened?”

This time Ranma nodded slightly.

“Oh.” Maintaining a calm tone, Akane told the girl, “Well, we'll have a doctor look at you as soon as possible. Can you sit up so I can put your shirt on?” She reached down and started to pull Ranma into a sitting position, but this caused the nausea to overwhelm him and he spun around and emptied his stomach on the ground.

He turned back around slowly, then carefully put his hands to both sides of his head, trying to convey the notion that he was in pain and dizzy. He drew a hand back, made a fist, and mimicked hitting himself in the head.

“You were hit in the head?” Akane asked, in order to confirm what the girl seemed to be suggesting. She reached over and her soft touch quickly found a sizable lump on the other teenager's head.

Once again Ranma nodded in answer, wincing as this caused the wound to bump against Akane's fingertips.

“I see. You probably have a concussion, then. I'll try to be a little more gentle, okay?” Working slowly and carefully, Akane got the shirt, pants and shoes on the girl.

After finishing with the clothes, Akane looked around once more. Grimly she told Ranma, “I've made sure that these assholes won't wake up for a few hours. I've got something better in mind for them then the police. Don't worry, I promise you that they will regret what they tried tonight. In fact, they'll wish that I had turned them over to the police.”

Ranma found himself feeling reassured. This girl had answered his prayers and saved him. He would trust that she knew what she was talking about. Besides, he had his own reasons for not wanting to involve the police or the courts. He didn't want to try to imagine what they would make of his curse.

Akane continued, planning what to do next. “I saw your pack. Do you have any place to go? Do you live around here?”

Ranma shook his head no.

Akane smiled. It was a beautiful smile, and Ranma felt himself falling into it. “In that case, would you like to come home with me? You can have a meal, and a hot bath. You'll be safe there. You'll love my big sister Kasumi, and my other sister Nabiki, well, she isn't too bad. Besides us, the only other person is my father, and he's just a big softie. What do you say?”

Ranma gave a small smile of his own and nodded. He tried to stand up, not very successfully, and Akane pushed him back down.

“It's okay,” Akane told him. “I'm stronger than I look. I'll carry you.” She pulled the massive pack onto her back, then picked Ranma up into her arms and walked out of the alley. A few meters down the street she halted and stooped, standing back up holding the bag she had dropped earlier, dangling it from one hand.

A short time later they stepped through a gate into a yard. Ranma saw a two story house, set on a piece of property which was fairly large by Tokyo standards. He also caught a glimpse of what looked like a second building, before the corner of the house hid it from view.

A slightly older girl met them at the front door. “Akane, you're finally home! Oh, my! Who is this? What happened?”

“This is my sister Kasumi,” Akane gently told the girl in her arms. She then looked back up and responded to her sister's question in tones of fury. “Some men attacked her. Luckily, I got there before they could really get started. I think she has a concussion, and she doesn't seem to be able to speak. Could you get some food in her stomach while I call Doctor Tofu?”

A look of rare anger passed across Kasumi's features. “Yes, of course. Put her down on the couch in the family room, and I'll heat some soup for her.”

Akane, still carrying Ranma, walked down the hall and through a doorway. As they entered the room, Ranma saw a man sitting there, reading a newspaper. He appeared to be in his forties, with long hair and a mustache, and was wearing a brown gi. Unable to control his reaction, Ranma cringed as the man looked up and met his eyes. His arms tightened sharply around Akane, and he buried his face in her shoulder. Shame washed over him at behaving in such a manner, but at the moment the fear was stronger than the shame.

Akane saw her father's eyebrows rising up toward his hairline. She tried to reassure the girl. “That's my father, Soun Tendo. He won't hurt you. You're safe, I promise.”

Ranma ran his tongue over dry lips. This girl, Akane, was right. He knew that. There was no reason to think this man was any threat. Besides, he was Ranma Saotome! He wasn't tied up, now, and even with a concussion he could defend himself against any attack! So why did he feel afraid?

Akane saw the panic in Ranma's eyes and chewed on her lip for a moment before looking back up at her father. “Daddy, would you mind leaving the room for a while? Kasumi's in the kitchen. She'll explain.”

Although most people who knew him would say that Soun Tendo had a tendency to make foolish decisions, he wasn't precisely stupid, and was already getting an uncomfortable feeling about what was going on. Silently he rose to his feet and quickly left the room. Ranma slowly relaxed his muscles.

Akane lay Ranma on a couch, then retrieved a blanket and tucked it around him. Akane once again tried to assure the red-haired girl that she'd be safe, before telling her that she had to make a couple of phone calls. Slipping out of the room, she saw her father leave the kitchen, where he'd presumably been speaking with Kasumi, then vanish down the hall into his bedroom.

She first called Doctor Tofu Ono and carefully explained what had happened, together with the probability that the victim had a concussion. The doctor promised to come over right away. Akane then had a long, tedious conversation over the telephone with Tatewaki Kuno, but felt confident after she hung up that the three assailants would regret the day that they were born. Kuno had promised that they would awaken on a freight ship already out to sea, under a captain who would treat them mercilessly, surrounded by a crew who would regard them as filth. They had been effectively sentenced to hard labor for the next several years, and would learn what it felt like to be helpless against stronger opponents.

Akane returned to the family room with the soup Kasumi had made and began feeding it to Ranma, while Kasumi hovered nearby. Another girl wandered in and was introduced as the third sister, Nabiki. Kasumi took her out into the hall to explain what had happened, making Ranma feel even more bitterly ashamed over the fact that he had been unable to defend himself.

Nabiki felt immensely sorry for the girl, but knew she had no worthwhile experience in the expression of sympathy. She was very much afraid that if she went back into the room, she would say the wrong thing and only make matters worse. She gave Kasumi a practical suggestion to provide pen and paper so that the girl could write in place of talking, then fled back to the sanctuary of her room.

When Ranma finished the soup, Akane took the bowl and spoon back into the kitchen, then returned with a pen and a pad of paper. Kasumi had handed these to her, mentioning that it was Nabiki's idea. Holding the items up, Akane suggested, “If you can't speak, perhaps you can write some things down?”

Ranma nodded eagerly, and gratefully took the pen and paper. He immediately wrote “Thank you!” in large characters, and underlined it several times. Akane smiled, and patted his hand.

Akane then made the point, “We need to know what to call you. What's your name?”

The girl lying on the couch immediately wrote “Ranma.” He put the pen to paper to write more, but then stopped. As he had prepared to write the name “Saotome,” a towering fury swept across him, making his entire body tremble. It was his pop's fault that he had been running around alone in the first place! It was his pop's fault that he was so scared of cats, which had caused him to knock himself out! It was his pop's fault that he was cursed to turn into a girl! What had nearly happened was his pop's fault! He wanted no more connection to the old man. Looking at the paper again, he wrote, “Just Ranma.”

“Ranma, huh?” Akane tested the name on her tongue. “That's sort of an unusual name for a girl, isn't it?”

Ranma shrugged. Now that the immediate danger was past he felt an overwhelming desire to change back to a guy and get rid of this cursed form which had nearly been ... his mind slammed a mental door on that thought. At the same time he felt sudden worry over the reaction he would get from Akane and the others. She had helped him, but what would happen if she found out he was a gender-changing freak? Would she throw him out? He felt safe for the moment and couldn't bear the thought of finding himself outside again, with no idea of where to go. To excuse his fear of leaving, he told himself that he needed to face his fear of still being in this female form. Tomorrow would be soon enough to reveal his curse.

Unaware of his inner debate, Akane gave a small laugh. “Don't worry. It's a fine name. So, where are you from, Ranma?”

He shrugged again, then wrote, “All over.”

“What do you mean?” Akane was puzzled.

Tongue protruding slightly between his lips, he wrote, “Traveled. Don't have a home.”

Akane was startled. “Goodness! How did you survive? What did you do, traveling all of the time?”

Ranma wrote the word, “Trained.” He felt his eyes grow moist, and added, “Martial arts.” His vision grew blurry, as he further wrote, “Not that you'd guess.”

“Oh, Ranma!” Akane leaned forward and hugged the other girl tightly, squeezing more tears out of the redhead's eyes. “You mustn't blame yourself! The way they had you tied up, there was nothing you could do!”

Ranma turned away, hating the reminder of how helpless he had been. Akane paled, both from regretting what she had just said, as well as her sudden realization that under similar circumstances, she herself might have been equally helpless.

Any further attempts at communication were temporarily thwarted by the ringing of the front bell. Akane hurried out of the room to answer it herself, stopping Kasumi and suggesting that her older sister prepare a place for Ranma to sleep. With a sigh of relief for getting Kasumi out of the way, and a small curse for Doctor Tofu's bouts of insanity whenever he caught sight of her older sister, Akane finally answered the door.

“Hello, Doctor Tofu,” she said shyly. “Thanks for coming over. She still can't talk, but she can write. Her name is Ranma, and she doesn't seem to have any family. She's right this way.”

Tofu slipped off his shoes and followed the youngest Tendo. Ranma watched the man approach, feeling the terror grip him once more, while Akane introduced the fellow as their family doctor. Cursing himself for his reactions, Ranma steeled himself to accept the doctor's presence. Tofu's gentle bedside manner soon had him feeling a little more at ease, though only slightly. After a brief examination during which he ignored the way the girl flinched away from his touch, Tofu pronounced a verdict of a slight concussion for most of the symptoms.

After giving this diagnosis, Tofu went on. “Now as for this sudden inability to talk, I don't think that has anything to do with the blow to the head, given the location of the wound. I suspect it's due to psychological trauma. It may be that you'll recover by tomorrow morning. If not, then I would suggest that you talk with, or, er, I mean, meet with, a professional counselor. I can recommend a few people if that should prove necessary.”

Ranma sighed, then wrote, “Thank you. Hope I don't need that.” He then gave a huge yawn.

Tofu nodded and replied, “I also hope you'll recover on your own, and quickly. In the meantime, your experiences have left you very fatigued. I recommend sleep, and then see how you feel in the morning.”

Akane suggested, hesitantly, “I had thought she might like to have a hot bath ...?”

Ranma had never wanted a bath more in his entire life. He wanted to scrub the shame away, scrub until the memory of the hands on his body was rubbed out. At the same time, he panicked at the thought of a hot bath. He had suffered too much humiliation already. He was certain now that they wouldn't let him stay once they knew of his curse. Even a cold bath would run the risk of being in a room with hot water. His carefully schooled features revealing nothing of this inner turmoil, all that the other two saw was the red-haired girl shaking her head.

Tofu smiled, although a little puzzled, but took note of Ranma's drooping eyes. “I think that she'd really rather just go to sleep.” Ranma sadly nodded his agreement to this. Tofu added, “I'll come by again in the morning, before I go on to my clinic, to see how she's doing. I'm sure that you're going to be fine, young lady.”

The doctor picked up his bag and left the room, followed by Akane. As he slipped his shoes back on at the front door, she said, “Thank you so much for coming over, Doctor Tofu. Do you really think she'll recover her ability to speak anytime soon?”

He paused, and looked at her. “I'm not a psychologist, Akane-chan. I hope so, but we'll just have to wait and see. There is a small chance it might be connected to the concussion. I don't think you should leave her alone tonight — if she shows any other unusual symptoms, then please call me at once. Besides, given what happened to her, she probably won't want to be left alone tonight.”

Akane nodded. “I understand. I promise that I'll keep an eye on her tonight. Thank you again for all of your help.” She watched him step down the walk and waved good-bye as he went through the gate, before finally closing the front door.

On returning to the family room, Akane asked, “Ready to go upstairs to bed?” On receiving a sad nod, Akane helped the redhead to her feet, and lent an arm for support against any lingering dizziness. They slowly made their way up the stairs, where they met Kasumi emerging from the guest room.

“Oh, good, there you are Akane,” she remarked cheerfully. “I've made up a futon for our guest, and left some of your pajamas on it since I couldn't find any in her pack. In fact, there was a distinct lack of feminine garments, with several pairs of boxer shorts instead.” Kasumi shook her head over the girl's eccentric choice of underclothes. “I'm afraid that you'll have to bring the pack upstairs for her. When I tried to lift it, I couldn't.”

Akane looked toward the guest room, considering options. Rather abstractedly, she replied, “That's okay, oneechan. I'll bring it up in a few minutes. By the way, she's able to write things, and her name is Ranma.” Reaching a conclusion, she continued more firmly, “I think it will be better if we put her futon in my room tonight. She shouldn't be left alone.”

Ranma turned his head to regard the girl whose rescue and kindness had caused her to achieve nearly angelic proportions in his eyes. The idea of spending the night in her bedroom, when she had no idea that he was really a guy ... there was no way that he was going to do that. He began shaking his head violently, causing another wave of dizziness to sweep over him.

“Why not, Ranma?” Akane wanted to know, then shook her own head at her thoughtlessness. “Oh, here, come on into the room and sit down so you can write.”

After sitting down on the futon, Ranma took the pad and wrote, “Sleep here!”

Akane put her hands on her hips. “What's wrong with sleeping in my room?”

Ranma shook his head again, then wrote, “Not right. Shouldn't be in your room.”

Sounding a little exasperated, Akane replied, “I don't mind. You have my permission, okay?”

Ranma wrote, “No. Your room. Won't sleep there.”

Akane blew her breath out sharply with her lower lip protruding, causing her bangs to flutter. There was no way she was going to allow herself to lose her temper under the circumstances. “Very well, Ranma. But you have a concussion, and you are not sleeping alone tonight. Kasumi?” she called to her sister, standing nearby. “Would you help me make up another futon in here, for me? I'll sleep in here tonight.”

“Of course, Akane,” Kasumi answered firmly, almost sternly. “You're quite right that Ranma-san shouldn't be alone tonight.” She walked over to the closet and began pulling more things out.

Ranma wrote furiously, “I'll be fine! You don't have to stay with me!”

Akane read, then snorted. “Too bad. I'm staying anyway.”

Ranma's eyes flashed, but suddenly he felt too weary to argue any further. He pulled off his outer clothes, leaving himself in boxers and a T-shirt. He lifted the pajamas for a moment, studying them disdainfully. He put them on the floor, lay down and pulled the blanket over himself. Almost immediately, he found that he had trouble keeping his eyes open any longer.

Akane watched with troubled eyes as the other girl fell asleep. Once she heard light snores coming from the futon, she headed downstairs and brought the heavy pack up, then went to her own room to change into pajamas. When she returned, she brought some homework back with her. Akane spent the next couple of hours working on assignments, before she finally turned off the light and crawled onto her own futon.

Akane awoke from a sound sleep, wondering what had disturbed her. She looked groggily at the glowing digits of a nearby clock. ‹Two in the morning! Ugh! I have school tomorrow. I have to get up in just a few hours.›

It was then that she noticed small whimpering and rustling sounds nearby. She suddenly remembered their guest, and quickly got up and turned on the light. Ranma was thrashing around under the blankets, making small plaintive noises.

Akane knelt down and grabbed the redhead's arms. “Ranma! Ranma! Wake up! You're having a nightmare!” She tried gently shaking her, but it seemed to have no effect. Stronger shakes were equally ineffective. Steeling herself, Akane slapped Ranma lightly across the face. The girl's eyes flew open.

Ranma emitted a wordless, almost inaudible, noise and threw his arms around Akane, hugging her tightly. Akane felt the other girl trembling violently. “Were you ... dreaming? About what happened? Almost happened?” Akane asked, quickly correcting herself. She felt Ranma nod her head jerkily, where it was buried against her chest.

Akane held Ranma until she felt the tremors slow down, then grabbed her own pillows and put them beside Ranma's. Lying both of them down with Ranma's back to her, Akane wrapped her arms around the other girl and held her close. Too upset to protest, Ranma relaxed into the comforting embrace. Before long he was asleep once more, and Akane soon followed him into slumber.

When Ranma awoke the next morning, he had never felt so peaceful. With a sudden shock, he realized that someone's arms were around him. He sat bolt upright, looking down at the girl with the long black hair and the beautiful smile, who was looking back at him.

“So, you're finally awake,” Akane said merrily. “Good. Because I need to get up. I'm going to skip my jog, because I want to be here when the doctor stops by to see you. But then I'm afraid that I'll have to get ready to go to school.”

At first Ranma stared at her, bewildered. But then memory returned, and his eyes closed in pain as he remembered everything about the previous day. He opened his mouth to say something, but no sound emerged.

Akane bit her lip. “You still can't talk?”

Ranma shook his head sadly. Looking around, he spied the pad and pen and picked them up. He wrote, “Guess not,” and showed it to her.

“I'm really sorry, Ranma,” she told him. “Still, we'd better get up and get dressed. We need to get downstairs for breakfast, and Doctor Tofu will probably be here soon to look you over once more.”

At the word “breakfast” Ranma's stomach gave a loud grumble, and the thought “Food!” roared through his mind. While Akane left for her own room to find some clothes, Ranma pulled some out of his own pack and dressed quickly. He found his way downstairs and to the family room, but then stopped short. The older man, the girls' father, was there reading a newspaper. Ranma trembled, but then kicked himself mentally. Stiffening his resolution, he walked into the room and knelt at the low table. Only a slight tremor in his hands betrayed his emotional state at being so close to the man kneeling across from him.

The other girl he had seen briefly, Nabiki, was already there sipping some coffee, her eyes half closed. Kasumi came in from the kitchen wearing a cheerful expression, and put some food down in front of their guest. “Here you go, Ranma! Eat as much as you want, I made plenty.”

Ranma needed no further encouragement, and dug in. The food was delicious. Akane entered the room just as the last of it disappeared, and all three girls stared at the scary sight of how rapidly the breakfast had vanished into that ravening maw. Kasumi shook herself free of the spell, left the room, and returned with a much larger amount.

“Well, at least you've got a good appetite,” Akane commented dubiously, as she knelt down to her own breakfast. Ranma's ears blushed pinkly, and he made an effort to slow down.

Akane turned to her father and announced, “Daddy, I don't believe anyone told you last night. Her name is Ranma. She was able to write some things down, and she told us her name that way.”

Soun lowered his newspaper and stared in surprise. “Ranma? That's an ... unusual name for a girl. But what's even more surprising is that I have a very good friend who has a son named Ranma. Genma Saotome. He and I trained together when we were younger.” He looked off into space thoughtfully. “I haven't seen Saotome in years upon years. Still, I expect to see him again one day.”

Ranma barely controlled his own surprised reaction, lowering his eyes to his breakfast to conceal it. Of all the places to end up! Apparently this was the old friend to whom his father had referred, and one of these girls was the one he was supposed to marry! He tried not to blush at the thought of marrying Akane, of waking up beside her every day as he had that morning, of seeing her beautiful smile for the rest of his life. Perhaps he had been overly hasty to run away from his father?

Who was he kidding, though? No girl would ever want him so long as he had this curse, not even someone as wonderful as Akane. He angrily crushed the thought, determined not to torment himself with what-ifs and might-have-beens. On the other hand, this did bring up the matter of his curse. He couldn't justify hiding it any longer.

Before he could act on this impulse, the bell rang. Kasumi turned to go answer the door, but Akane jumped to her feet and ran out ahead of her sister, announcing that she would get it. She opened the door to find Doctor Tofu standing there, a slightly larger smile than usual on his face.

“Hello, Akane-chan!” he said chirpily. “And how is Ranma this morning?”

Akane narrowed her eyes, wondering why his behavior seemed a little strange even before he'd laid eyes on Kasumi. “Ranma seems better this morning, physically at least. She still can't talk though.”

“Oh my, that doesn't sound good,” Tofu replied, continuing to smile. “I suppose that I'd better have a look at her.”

As Akane stepped aside to let the doctor enter, she asked, “Um, what's wrong with you, Doctor Tofu? You seem a little ... um ...”

Tofu smiled cheerfully in her direction, not that he had stopped smiling so far. “I took a little something to help me stay calm when I came over this morning,” he told her. “It seems to be working so far.”

Akane snorted. “If you were any calmer, you'd be floating above the ground. Oh well, come on.” She led him back to the family room, keeping an eye on him as if afraid that he might lose his way.

Tofu's manner became a little more serious as he knelt beside Ranma, ignoring her uncontrolled flinch. It helped that Kasumi was out of sight behind him. He examined the bump on the girl's head, looked into her eyes and ears, and performed other similar tests. He leaned back and declared, “You seem to be much better this morning, Ranma-san. However, I understand that you still cannot speak?”

Ranma frowned, and shook his head negatively.

Tofu pursed his lips and replied, “Well, I am sorry to hear that. I still feel certain the cause is psychological, rather than organic. Given the location of the blow, if it were the cause, I would expect to be seeing other problems, er, symptoms as well. If Akane or Nabiki could stop by my clinic after school, I'll give her a list of counselors I think might be able to help you.”

“I'll stop by to get it,” Akane promised.

The medical examination having ended, Tofu relaxed once more. “Now, is there anything else I can do for you, Ranma?” the doctor asked in a singsong voice. He was already turning in preparation to stand.

Ranma took a deep breath, and nodded. Surprised, Tofu sank back to his knees. The redhead pulled out her pad and wrote on it, then tore off the piece of paper and handed it to Kasumi. It read, “Hot water please?”

Kasumi looked up from the paper to the girl across the table. “You want me to bring you some hot water?” she asked in confusion.

Ranma nodded and gave the older girl a pleading look. Still puzzled, Kasumi stood up and went into the kitchen. Ranma started writing again.

Kasumi returned and placed a kettle on the table in front of Ranma. He reached out and felt the side of it. A little too hot, but that was okay, he wanted to tell them some of the story first in order to prepare them. He tore the sheet off and handed it to Akane.

Akane read aloud. “Two weeks ago, I was in the Bayankala mountains, in the Qinghai province of China. In a remote valley called Jusenkyo, which was supposed to be a legendary training ground.”

Soun interrupted her. “The legendary ground of accursed springs?”

Ranma stared, then wrote quickly. He shoved the pad in front of the older man, who read, “You've heard of it?”

Soun cleared his throat. “Er, well, that is to say, my old master mentioned it once. There was supposed to be some sort of horror associated with it, but he never explained.”

A volcanic fury boiled up in Ranma, threatening to erupt. Everyone drew back slightly, as if sensing this. If Genma Saotome had been in the room, it might well have been his last moment on earth. ‹Pop knew! They had the same master, so he must have heard the same thing! And he took me there anyway! If I ever see him again, I'll kill him!› He struggled to get himself back under control.

Akane gave Ranma a concerned glance, then resumed reading. “The floor of the valley has many pools of water. I was sparring with someone there, and was knocked into one of the pools.”

Ranma wrote rapidly, then tore off another sheet and handed it to her. Akane continued. “Anyone who falls in one of the pools is cursed.” She stopped and looked up. “Cursed? What are you talking about?” Ranma's mouth flattened, and he pointed at the paper again. Akane flushed and looked back down at the words he had written.

“Most of the curses seem to change a person into an animal.” Akane stopped and looked up again. “Oh, come on! You don't expect us to believe this, do you?” Ranma pointed again, and Akane gave a heavy sigh.

“In order to become human again, they need to have hot water poured on them. But cold water will always change them into an animal again. They know they're human, but they have an animal's body.”

Everyone was now staring at Ranma. Nabiki asked mockingly, “So if we pour cold water on you, you'll turn into a duck or a rabbit or something?”

Ranma shook his head. He wrote more and handed it to Akane. She read, “It was raining yesterday. Cold water, remember? This is my cursed form.”

Akane looked up. “I don't understand. You're not an animal.”

Ranma gazed at her sadly. He wrote two more sentences, then handed the paper to her. Akane looked at it, then looked up wide-eyed. “No,” she whispered. “That's not possible.”

Tofu reached over and plucked the paper from Akane's unresisting fingers. With a bemused glance at the paper, he read aloud for everyone else's benefit. “My curse turns me into a girl. I'm really a boy.” As Tofu said the final words, Ranma lifted the kettle and poured it over his head.

Reactions of shock sped around the table as Ranma transformed into a boy in front of their eyes. Tofu put a hand on the floor to steady himself. Nabiki dropped her coffee into her lap and started cursing. Soun's hands spasmed, tearing his disregarded newspaper in half. Kasumi voiced a weak, “Oh my!”

But the only one Ranma was watching was Akane. She scooted backward and her eyes changed. He'd seen that look on her face before, and it only took him a moment to remember when. She'd looked like that last night, as she attacked the men in the alley. The thought hit him like a hammer — in her eyes, he was now no better than they were. He jumped to his feet and ran outside, throat closing up in agony.

“My God!” Nabiki was saying. “She ... he ... really meant it. He really does have a magical curse.”

“He's a boy,” Akane stated flatly. Then in rising tones, “He's a perverted boy! I can't believe that I slept in the same bed with him last night!”

Standing outside, just out of sight, Ranma heard this sentiment and felt his heart rip. Looking around wildly, he saw an open window on the second floor, and realized it must belong to the guest room. In a single leap he was on the sill, and then climbed inside.

Back downstairs, Kasumi was speaking in a strained voice. “Akane, you surely can't blame him for this. Do you think he would have wanted such a curse? Is it his fault that those men attacked him last night? Does the fact that he's a boy make what happened to him any less terrible? As I remember it last night, he refused to sleep in your room. You were the one who insisted on joining him.”

Akane flushed. “I didn't know he was a boy. He should have told us!”

Between the drugs he had taken and the shock of seeing Ranma's curse, Tofu found himself in a strange mental state. Kasumi's words seemed to come from a great distance, barely befuddling him. He wondered for a moment if he could find some combination of drugs and pressure points to reproduce his current state of mind.

For the sake of his patient, he quickly turned to the more pressing concern of supporting Kasumi's reprimand of her sister. “Akane, think about what he'd gone through! His entire world must be turned upside-down by this curse, and then the trauma of last night. You can't expect him to have made logical decisions like that! I'm surprised he could bring himself to tell us this morning. If you'd gone through what he did, do you honestly think you could have done any better?”

Akane bit her lip and looked down. She had a great deal of respect for both Kasumi and Doctor Tofu, and she thought hard about what they were saying. Boys in general might be perverts who wanted to take advantage of girls, but Ranma had been victim, not perpetrator. What had happened to him had been worse than anything anyone had ever done to her.

There were other forces at work in Akane's mind whose existence she herself did not suspect. She had already formed a bond with Ranma. She had rescued him, fed him, cared for him, even if she hadn't known he was a ‘him’ at the time. He had needed her, and she had answered that need. On a level below conscious realization, his future welfare had become important to her.

Akane looked up at a sound from overhead, and made the intuitive leap that Ranma was putting things back in his pack in preparation to run off. If he did, he probably wouldn't get the help that he clearly needed. She might never see him again, and would be left wondering if he had been able to recover. Guilt started to stab at her, that it was her words which were driving him away. Making up her mind quickly, Akane jumped to her feet and ran upstairs.

She entered the room just in time to see the boy settling his monstrous pack on his shoulders. Akane cried out, “Wait, Ranma! Don't go!”

Ranma shook his head and moved toward the window. Akane reached out and grabbed his arm. “No, please. I ... it was the shock. I spoke without thinking. Don't go.”

Ranma shook his arm free, then looked around and spied the paper and pencil with which Akane had been doing her homework the previous night. He stepped over and picked them up, then wrote, “Last night, you saved me. This morning, you see me the same way as those men. I can't stay and see that in your eyes.”

Akane read this then looked at him, overlaying his features with her memory of the red-haired girl from last night. He might be a boy, but he wasn't just a boy, not anymore. With his curse, he would be able to understand — as of last night, far too well! — a female's perspective on the behavior of immature, hormonally addled males. She took a deep breath before answering.

“Like I said, you caught me by surprise. I didn't think. I ... just reacted. I, uh, I don't really believe you'd ever treat any girl like that. I mean, after all, with your curse you can understand how a girl feels. In a way no other men can.”

Ranma looked at her and scowled, causing Akane to swallow hard as she wondered what had prompted it. He wrote furiously for a moment, then handed her the paper. “Curse doesn't stop me. Honor does!”

“You mean because it wouldn't be honorable to act like that?” Akane asked him. Ranma nodded. Akane frowned and looked aside. “I've known other boys who talk big about honor, but who wouldn't hesitate to think of girls that way.”

Ranma wrote again and handed it to her. “They don't understand honor.”

He wrote some more. “Last night, I tried not to stay in the same room with you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my curse. I was scared.” He scowled some more as he wrote the word “scared,” but it was true enough, and he wanted to make her understand. To emphasize the point, as much for himself as for her, he underlined the word.

Akane breathed out, releasing some more of her tension. She knew that she was incompletely reconciled to his presence, but refused to let it show. She reached out a hand, and laid it on his arm. “I understand. Ranma? Please stay. At least until you have somewhere else to go. I ... trust you.”

Ranma smiled crookedly, as if he knew she wasn't being entirely honest, but he didn't call her on it. He looked her in the eyes for a long couple of minutes, debating. When he made up his mind, Ranma shrugged the pack off of his shoulders and set it on the floor, then bowed deeply to her. Akane blushed, but returned the bow. Together they left the room, and returned to the breakfast table.

“Ranma will be staying for a while,” Akane announced as they knelt back down.

“Oh, good,” Kasumi responded. “It will be nice to cook for someone who enjoys his food so much.”

“How long?” Nabiki wanted to know.

Soun spoke up. “Do you have any family, Ranma?” He frowned when the boy shook his head. “Seeing as how you really are a boy ... do you have any connection to Genma Saotome after all?”

Ranma thought about the fact that he never wanted any connection with Genma Saotome, ever again. He shook his head once more.

“Do you have any idea at all where you can go?” the Tendo father inquired. Ranma just shrugged his shoulders, and shook his head negatively again.

“Well, what have you been doing with yourself all of this time?” Soun asked.

Ranma spotted the pad and pen where he'd dropped them earlier, and wrote. “Traveling. Training in martial arts. I'm the best!”

Akane hmmphed and scowled when her father read this aloud. Soun shook his own head, unsure how to handle the situation. Finally he said, “I suppose that you can stay with us for a time. Perhaps we should enroll you in the local high school? What grade are you in?”

Tofu spoke up, once again carefully avoiding looking in Kasumi's direction, although his smile was on the goofy side and he waved a finger through the air as he made his points. “I think it might be better for Ranma to avoid contact with too many people too soon. We should see what his therapist says once he has one, but he should probably wait at least a couple of weeks before attending school. He can take the time to gradually familiarize himself with the area and get accustomed to meeting people. He also needs time to get used to dealing with his handicap, in case he doesn't recover his ability to speak soon.”

“We could still enroll him,” Nabiki said. “Akane or I could bring assignments home for him, for a small fee, until he's ready to start going to school. Like daddy asked, what grade are you in, Ranma-kun?”

Ranma wrote, “I'm sixteen. I was in middle school last. I would have started high school this year, if I was still in school.”

“I'll stop by the office today,” Nabiki told him. “We'll see if we can't get you into the same class as Akane, so she can help you catch up. And I'll only charge you one thousand yen for this service.”

Ranma looked pained. “I haven't got very much money,” he wrote to her.

“Then you'd better not expect too many favors from me,” Nabiki responded seriously. She turned to her younger sister. “Akane, if you're ready, then we'd better be leaving.”

Akane looked over at the clock and nodded. She touched a napkin to her lips then ran upstairs, followed more sedately by Nabiki. They came back downstairs carrying school bags and wearing rather unflattering uniforms. Kasumi handed each of them a bento. With a last good-bye, they slipped on their shoes and left. Tofu took this as his cue, and made his good-byes as well.

Soun cleared his throat. “So, son. If you've been training in martial arts, perhaps you'd like to go out and have a look at our dojo?”

Ranma's eyes lit up. These people had their own private dojo? He nodded his head enthusiastically, his excitement overriding the nervousness he felt at going off somewhere alone with the man. The two of them stood and went outside, only to be met by a crack of thunder and a brief downpour. Ranma hung his head, but his desire to see the dojo exceeded his concern over his gender change. They entered the building and Ranma gazed around appreciatively.

Ranma bowed to Soun Tendo, then to the dojo's shrine, before beginning a complex kata. Soun watched the girl. ‹No, think of him as a boy,› he told himself. Soun felt a vague sense of familiarity nagging at him. The young man's movements were reminiscent of some of the Anything Goes kata which he himself had taught not so many years ago, and he could have sworn that he had seen something very similar to it once upon a time. Seeing that the girl ... boy ... knew what he was about, and with a last smile for the grace he was displaying, Soun went back inside to return to his newspaper.

The comfortable familiarity of martial arts practice acted as a soothing balm for the raw wounds in Ranma's mind. He ignored his presently female body, and focused tightly on the kata he was performing. It still seemed bizarre that the place he had tried so hard to avoid when he ran from his father, was precisely the place where he had ended up. He wondered once more which of the three girls he was supposed to have married, and what he might have done had it turned out to be Akane. With a grimace, he remembered the ... unhappiness ... she had still exhibited at the end, over the discovery that he was male.

He wondered how long he would stay. Whether the Tendos would ever discover who he really was. If he would ever be able to speak again. Eventually he ran out of unanswerable questions, and pictured once more a beautiful smile, longing to see it again. His lips curved up into a smile of their own, as he hoped that he'd have the chance.