Chapter Two: A New Curse, A New Akane
Akane woke up slowly. His head felt as if someone had repeatedly slammed it into a bed of rocks and then scraped his neck raw with sandpaper; he sat up, groaning and rubbing his head, vaguely aware of Kasumi looking over him worriedly.
“What the hell happened?” he asked in a deep, annoyed baritone. He tried to remember, but everything was fuzzy and vaguely dreamlike.
Kasumi seemed startled at his gruff manner. “Well, you seem to have acquired a curse…”
Akane had a sudden flash of memory – a shriveled up old woman and a young, beautiful girl with malice flashing in their eyes. “Cologne and Shampoo? Damn those two!”
He said the last vehemently enough that Kasumi put one hand to her mouth, and chided her sister. “Akane! Please don’t speak like that!”
Akane looked distinctly annoyed. “How am I supposed to act?”
His sister floundered for words. “A little more feminine, perhaps…”
“Feminine?” Akane said, a note of disgust in his voice. “Why would I want to act feminine? Sis, you’re actin’ even weirder than normal…”
“Weirder than normal…” she repeated softly. “Akane, are you feeling alright?”
Before Akane could answer there was the sound of pounding footsteps approaching them and the sliding door was thrown open violently. The rest of the population of the house then attempted to run in at once, causing them to end up in a tangled pile on the floor – all of them, that is, except for Nabiki who strolled in a few seconds later.
Soun was the first one to speak. Tears were already starting to pour out of his eyes as he grabbed Akane by the shoulders. “Akane! What has happened to you?” he sobbed.
Annoyed, Akane threw his father’s hands of his shoulders. “Nothin’ wrong, dad. I don’t know why you’re all freakin’ out…”
Ranma butted in, shoving himself between father and… son to talk to Akane. “Geez, what’s up with you Akane? Even you’re not normally this much of a tomboy…”
Akane’s expression changed abruptly into something unidentifiable to Ranma but most certainly frightening as well. “A tomboy, eh? So that’s what you think of me? Any particular reason?” he grinned back in a manner that could only be called mischievous.
Ranma suddenly realized how close he was to him and quickly stumbled back a few steps, but Akane didn’t lose the half-smile.
Several faced looked back at Akane, confused; Ranma was just glad that none of the attention was centered on him for once. Kasumi was the first one to speak. “Akane, how many fingers?” she asked gently, holding up three.
Akane answered correctly, looking bored. Kasumi continued with the ritual, somehow knowing what had happened.
“And who’s that?”
“My old man.”
“Good. And that?”
“Good for nothin’ freeloader.”
“And him?”
“Dried prune.”
There was a pause, and then Soun started bawling loudly. “What has happened to my little girl?”
Akane glared at him. “What with the girl stuff? I’m a guy!”
“You’re a what!?” Several of the occupants of the room fell over.
“Wow, it’s like déjà vu or something,” Nabiki commented, and snapped her gum.
***
Akane, exasperated, went to practice in the dojo while the rest of the family had a conference.
“It’s just like what happened to Ranma that time, remember?” Nabiki reminded them.
Soun, in the corner, sobbed harder.
“Like what that happened to me when?” Ranma asked, confused.
“You mean you don’t remember?” Ranma shook his head. Nabiki sighed, “It was about a month ago… you were sparring with your father and hit your head hard on the edge of the pond, and it knocked you out. When you came to, you thought you were a girl. Totally. Acted like one, dressed like one – cried when we changed you back into a guy. Later you hit your head again and changed back to normal.”
Ranma’s eyes had grown to encompass his entire face as the story progressed, then finished. “You’re kidding me.”
“Nope.”
Ranma thought about it for a moment, collected himself, tried not to think about what he had done whilst in girl mindset, and also managed to come up with a plan. Multitask. “Hey, if hitting me on the head snapped me out of it, maybe…” Hey, we never said it was a good idea.
The reaction to that was so predictable that he sweatdropped even before Soun’s demon-head filled up half of the room behind him. “YOU WILL NOT HIT MY LITTLE GIRL!” his voice, magnified dozens of times, boomed.
“Okay, okay!” Ranma repented, backing away from the apparition. “I’m sure there’s some other way…”
“But we don’t even know what happened this time,” Kasumi pointed out.
“The old ghoul touched her on the back of the head,” Ranma told them.
“It must have been a pressure point,” Nabiki reasoned. “Probably the same one you hit before. The only problem is, what’s the cure? The only person who might know is Dr. Tofu, and he’s visiting his mother for a week.”
The entire family, save Soun who had resumed sobbing in the corner, pondered. And came up with… absolutely nothing. Smart bunch.
***
Ranma, Soun, and Genma watched Akane practice. “My little girl…” Soun cried to himself, “acting like a boy…”
“Oh, as if she didn’t before,” Ranma commented. “I don’t see much of a difference.”
Akane suddenly stopped and turned to them. “Not much of a difference?” he said, smirking. “Care to fight me, then?”
Reflexively, Ranma shook his head. “No way, I don’t fight gir…” Akane cut him off with a murderous glare. “Okay, fine then. Just a spar though, alright?”
Akane smirked. “So confident. Cute. Fine then, just a spar.”
Cute? Ranma blinked, and took a stance. Akane did the same.
Genma and Soun watched while the two fought. The two were surprisingly evenly matched; Ranma didn’t seem to be holding back as much as usual, while Akane – was an enigma. He was fighting as if it were a game, smiling the entire time. He wasn’t angry at all, it seemed. Finally it was over when Ranma threw Akane into a wall and he yielded, laughing.
“You’re good,” he said and he stood, and laughed again. “But then again, you’re Ranma, right? The best there is?” He grinned as if it were all some giant joke.
Ranma made no move to agree or disagree, simply took deep breaths to regain his wind. Finally, he answered, “Whatever. I’m gonna go clean up.”
Akane waited until he had disappeared from view, then left for the house as well. Genma and Soun just looked at each other, confused, and headed back their abandoned game of shougi. There wasn’t much left for them to do, except cry, commiserate, and wait.
***
Ranma tossed his clothes into the hamper and stepped into the furo room, mind whirling. She’s just so different now… a lot better in combat, for some reason… and not angry at all. Geez, did I act this weird when I thought I was a girl? He shivered, despite the hot water pouring over his body from the showerhead, at the idea. He reached up to turn off the water and froze.
He wasn’t the only one there…
***
~Mordain
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