Hey all, It's been a few weeks since I've come out with a new chapter of
this so I thought it was about time.  By the way, if you want any of the
previous parts to this just write me.  I have no Web page so that's 
probably your best bet for getting them.  
   (And it makes me feel important!)

	Wanted --  C&C of any size shape or form.  Will respond to any
		   sent.  I love puppies and have dreams of conquering
		   Denmark.  Reply to travis.mcintosh@student.oc.edu or
		   simply mock me in the privacy of your own home.

Disclaimer:  I have nothing to do with the characters of Ranma or anyone
else.  I'm really, really poor.  And I don't have a dog so I really can
do nothing but beg for forgiveness.  [Shamelessly grovel]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Possibilities
Chapter 5

	"Morning Ryoko," Akane said as she gently shook her 
roommate awake.  The small girl didn't respond for a few moments, 
then groggily opened her eyes.  "Come on lazy, its time to get up," 
Akane said a little more forcefully.
	Ryoga raised herself into a sitting position, and, with typical 
early morning lethargy, carefully looked around to get her bearings.  
She felt a wave of lazy contentment wash over her as she identified her 
location.  It had been two weeks since her short `training trip,' and they 
had been probably the best two weeks of her life, despite the fact that 
she had been forced to spend most of them in female form.  
	Seeing that her friend was awake Akane flashed her a warm 
smile, then headed down to breakfast leaving the other girl to herself.  
After a few moments Ryoga was able to pull herself out of bed, and, 
after a few brief stretches to get her blood flowing, began to get ready 
for school.  As she got dressed she idly wondered at how quickly one 
could used to anything.   
	The past two weeks had been strange ones for her.  She had 
been forced to stay a girl for periods of time before.  True, none of 
them had been quite this long, but always before she had spent her time 
among strangers, never staying with them for more time than was 
necessary to ask `Where is Furikan?'.  In fact, spending two whole 
weeks in the same city was quite a bit better than she had been able to 
manage for longer than she could remember.
	Life with the Tendo's was not perfect. Far from it.  Having to 
constantly stay in cursed form, combined with Ranma's constant cracks 
and Akane's attempts to get her to `open up' was far from what she 
would call the ideal situation.  However, for someone who had never 
before had a home and never spent enough time in one place to make 
any friends at all, it was almost paradise.   
	Soon she finished up her morning routine and began her 
search for breakfast.  She barely restrained herself from cursing aloud.  
Every day!  She had been here for two weeks and it still took her 
almost half an hour to find the dinning room every single day.  Today 
was no different and, after a brief period of wandering (about 25 
minutes, well under her average) she finally arrived for breakfast.
	"Good morning, Ryoko!" Kasumi greeted her with her typical 
smile.  Ryoga smiled back and took her seat at the table giving a 
pleasant greeting to the others present.  They responded with varying 
degrees of enthusiasm.  Genma (in panda form) simply nodded back.  
Soun probably didn't even notice her entrance as he read from the 
morning paper.   Nabiki simply ignored her, and Akane was nowhere to 
be found.  Probably still out on her morning jog, the lost girl decided.
	"Morning Ryochan," Ranma said with a grin.  Ryoga's eyes 
flashed red, as Ranma greeted her in his normal, annoying, way.
	"My name isn't Ryochan," she said, putting as much hostility 
into her voice as she could.  She glared at him from across the table.  
She didn't know why Ranma had to be such a jerk, but she wasn't 
going to let him get away with it. He simply smiled back, totally non-
pulsed by the threatening look she was giving him.
	"You're so cute when your angry," he said in a mocking tone.  
Ryoga had had enough.  With a yell she launched a flying jump kick 
across the table at Ranma, who, not surprisingly, was already ten feet 
away.  The battle soon began to rage across the Tendo back yard.  Just 
a typical morning at the Tendo's.
	A few minutes after the start of the morning chaos Akane 
returned from her own morning exercise to see the two locked in 
combat.  She had almost given up on trying to stop their fights.  
Especially when even she had trouble claiming that Ranma was picking 
on Ryoko, since he never even tried to fight back.  Though he 
obviously did start them!
	 The battle ranged on.  Although Ranma never even tried to 
attack physically, something which annoyed Ryoga to no end, he was 
almost untouchable by the small girl, and the battle progressed as it 
always did, a complete stalemate.  
	"Ranma, there's a package for you!" Kasumi yelled to the 
young martial artist as he dodged a particularly complex series of kicks 
from his enraged attacker.  
	"Cool!  A package!" Ranma said, performing an impressive 
jump over the pond, landing near the house and running up to retrieve 
it.  Ryoga followed warily, curiosity overcoming her annoyance.  
Besides, Akane was here, and, for some reason the same Ranma who 
could dodge and amazingly complex and difficult series of lighting 
quick punches and kicks from her found it almost impossible to avoid 
Akane's slower, and much less effective attacks.  With any luck he 
would stick his foot into his mouth and get what was coming to him 
even without her.
	"Who would be sending you a package from China Ranma?" 
Nabiki asked, curious.  
	"I dunno," Ranma scratched his head then tore into the 
package.  Opening up the box his eyes suddenly got very wide.  With a 
cry he literally jumped over the table and cowered behind his pandified 
father.  From inside the package a small, very cute, feline deftly leapt 
onto the table.  
	"C-C-C-C-Cat!" Ranma said, ever the master of the obvious.  
	Ryoga stared.  Ranma was scared of just a little cat?  She 
wasn't exactly sure of what was going on here but, then again, she 
really didn't need to.  The fact was: here was an opportunity to torment 
Ranma.  Reaching down she picked up the tiny animal, which for some 
reason didn't seem to appreciate the rather tight grasp she had on it.  
She was careful however, and managed to avoid the animals rather 
formidable claws.
	"What's the matter Ranma?" she asked in her most innocent 
voice as she held the cat threatening in front of her.  "Don't tell me 
your afraid of a little cat?" as soon as she spoke she tossed the animal 
across the table at the terrified Ranma who took no time in escaping at 
warp speed.  He was closely followed by the tiny feline who, for some 
reason, didn't seem to want him to leave her.
	"Oh, I am so ashamed!" Genma began, in tears having quickly 
changed back to human.  "My only son is a coward!"
	"This is all your fault old man!" Ranma yelled from a corner 
of the room where he had been trapped by the curious pet.
	"What's going on Mr. Saotome?"  Akane asked, completely 
ignoring her fianc�e's terror.
	The weeping Genma proceeded to explained the intricacies of 
the Cat-Fist to those around the table.  When he had finished there was 
a momentary silence.
	"So Ranma has cat phobia?" Ryoga asked, not quite sure she 
had followed the entire explanation.  She looked over at the cowering 
Ranma in the corner and back up to Genma who could only nod, still 
weeping.   The cat, for its part, had been simply sitting and watching 
the terrified martial artist for the past several minutes.  The encounter 
was cut short at this point, however, as Akane took a look at the clock 
and was instantly on her feet.
	"Come on.  We're late!" she said to Ryoga as she 
unceremoniously grabbed the still panicked Ranma by the arm and 
dragged him out the door.  Ryoga followed quickly not wanting to 
loose the two on the way to school.  Soon the three high schoolers were 
running at what would be, for the typical teenager, a completely 
ridiculous speed.
	The rest of the day passed for Ryoga like just about every day 
had for the past several weeks.  She, Ranma, and Akane all arrived late 
and were forced to spend the first half an hour of class outside with 
buckets.  They then returned to listen to the teachers lecture, something 
Ryoga felt was far worse than simply holding water in the hall.  
Though at least she was almost on the other side of the room from 
Ranma.
	Soon, though not soon enough for Ryoga, class let out and 
lunch began.  After waiting in line to receive their food the multitudes 
of students broke off into the numerous clicks that inevitably form in an 
high school setting.  Ryoga proceeded to her normal seat next to Akane 
surrounded by a rather large number of other girls.  She was never one 
for social interaction.  However, friendship with Akane had guaranteed 
her almost instant membership into the group and, over the past few 
weeks she had begun to make herself a place in the tight nit circle of 
friends.
	"Hey, Ryoko," Usaki caught her attention a few minutes after 
she had sat down to eat.  Ryoga gave the girl a wary look.  Usaki was 
fast becoming one of her closest friends outside of Akane, but the 
talkative girls attempts to `help' her with her social life had given 
Ryoga a good dose of caution when dealing with the school gossip. 
	"What do you think about Keneda?" the girl asked trying to 
sound completely non-chalant.  Ryoga swallowed, this definitely was 
not a good sign.
	"Who?" she replied trying to sound sincerely confused.
	"You know.  Keneda.  He sits next to you in History," Usaki 
waited for the reluctant nod of recognition from her friend.  "So." she 
trailed off giving Ryoga an expectant look.
	"What about him?"  Ryoga asked, desperate to head this line 
of questioning off before it could go completely beyond her control.  
Had anyone been there to help her out it might have been possible.  
After all her tactics left something to be desired.  A quick subject 
change perhaps, or a derisive comment.  Feigning ignorance only 
begged for an explanation.  This was Ryoga, however, so one must 
make allowances.
	Her classmate rolled her eyes.  Sometimes it was hard to 
believe that someone could be that dense.   "I heard," and now she 
lowered her voice in a conspiratle whisper, "that he might be going to 
ask you out."  Ryoga's eyes got very wide.  Usaki giggled, mistaking 
the look in her companions eyes for something quite a bit different.  
"Isn't he such a hunk," she said.
	"Isn't who a hunk?" Akane from behind as she caught a few 
words of their conversation.  
	"Keneda.  Him and Ryoko are going to be dating soon," she 
said with the utmost certainty.
	"No we're not!" Ryoga tried to protest.  However she was far 
outclassed by the excited girl sitting next to her.
	"Oh, don't be such a pessimist," Usaki returned almost 
immediately.  "I heard it from a reliable source," she leaned in on 
Ryoga and started speaking in quite a low whisper.  The other girls, 
getting wind of a juicy bit of gossip leaned in to hear what she was 
saying.  "Kato said, that Rei said, that she couldn't help but overhear 
Keneda talking to Dasuka during Gym," she paused only long enough 
to take a breath.   "And she said, that Keneda said, that he thought you 
were the cutest girl in school."  She finished up confidently.
	"That doesn't mean he'll ask me out," Ryoga returned 
desperately praying that it was so.
	"Of course it does silly.  He likes you, and him and Kaumi just 
broke up.  So that makes you the next lucky girl," Nakiri gave the 
terrified Ryoga an encouraging smile.
	"But that doesn't mean-" Ryoga tried to stop it, however 
Usaki had begun on another wonderful piece of gossip and the small 
girl decided to give up.  What did Usaki know anyway!  She was just 
guessing.  Besides, if he asked there were some simple ways of making 
sure it didn't happen again, she thought as she cracked her knuckles.
	Later, during class, Ryoga was having a difficult time paying 
attention to the teacher.  This was getting pretty bad.  There was no 
way she was going to date a guy!  The mere thought almost made her 
nauseous.  Ok, get a grip.  She knew she wasn't going to date anyone, 
but how could she make sure everyone else did.  Three hours later as 
the school let out for the day she still hadn't come any closer to a 
solution.
	"So where do you think he'll take you?" Akane asked.  
Despite her profession of hating boys she was taking quite a bit of 
interest in Ryoga's love life.
	"He's not taking me anywhere," she replied simply, almost 
defiantly.  Akane, who was a little more observant than her friends 
noticed the smaller girls antagonism.
	"Come on, Ryoko.  Just because you had a bad experience, 
there's no reason to give up altogether," she said.  Then she added, 
"Not everyone is a complete and utter pervert like Ranma." 
	"Whatya mean pervert!" Ranma said suddenly from behind.  
The two girls turned instantly to see the teenage martial artist walking 
the fence not three feet behind them.
	"You're a pervert, Ranma.  You should just admit it and get 
on with your life," Akane said casually in just the right tone to cause 
him to instantly loose his temper.  She added in that same tone, "Ryoko 
is over you now and when her and Keneda go out this weekend you'll 
just be another feather in her cap."
	"We were never-," the denial died on his lips, as Ranma just 
stared at Ryoga.  
	"We're not going to go out," Ryoga sounded defensive, even 
to herself .  "I wouldn't go out with a guy!  You know that Ranma!" 
Ryoga said almost pleading.
	"You wouldn't!" he paused and gave her a strange look.  
"Would you?"  there was barely concealed horror in his voice.
	"Of course she would," Akane broke in sounding rather 
confused at the whole line of conversation.
	"Me and Ryochan gotta talk.  Seeya latter Akane," Ranma 
said as he jumped off the fence and, grabbing Ryoga by the arm, 
dragged her away from Akane at mach speed.  The last thing a very 
surprised Ryoga heard from her roommate was a rather annoyed 
sounding `Ranma' before the two were out of ear shot.
	"Let go of me you Pervert!" Ryoga yelled as she suddenly 
realized she was letting Ranma drag her around.  She quickly 
disengaged herself from the black hared boy and immediately turned to 
face him in a practice fighting stance.  Ranma, who had dropped her 
almost immediately when she had spoken was simply staring at her 
however.  Almost as if she were his specimen from biology class.
	Ryoga kept her fists up, a slight wind blowing her skirt in the 
wind.  She waited for the attack she knew had to come.  
	"Come on Ranma, I'm not afraid of you," she said almost 
deciding to start the hostilities herself.
	"It true then," there was barely concealed horror in Ranma's 
voice.  "You turned into a girl," he shuddered as he spoke.
	"What!?" Ryoga was shocked.  She knew she must have heard 
wrong.
	"You're a girl now.  It finally happened.  I was wondering 
how long you were going to hold out.  I guess it wasn't too long." 
Ranma's eyes were still wide and he was visibly shaking as he spoke.
	"I am not a girl!!!" Ryoga yelled at the insane looser standing 
before her.
	"Yes you are.  You're wearing girls clothes.  Your talking like 
a girl.  And now your dating guys!  There's no other explanation.  
You've gone over." He bowed his head, almost as if in mourning.
	Ryoga stared at him.  How dare he!  So she had been forced to 
stay in cursed form for two weeks, and had worn skirts and dresses, and 
so what if she was talking like a girl.  So what!  
	"And I'm not dating Keneda!" she yelled at the top of her 
lungs.
	"Look Ryoko!  You're definitely one hundred percent girl 
now.  There's no point in denying it."  He paused for a second, "At 
least you're a cute girl," he added consolingly.
	"Ranma! You take that back!" Ryoga had had enough, she 
would have to beat some sense into this deluded moron.
	"Why should I it's true!" Ranma shot back, suddenly angry.
	"DIE!!!" Ryoga screamed as she launched her attack.  
	Things only seemed to degenerate from there.  
	
	Later, a worn our Ryoga was sitting next to Akane watching 
the television.  She really couldn't get into the program.  She had never 
appreciated television much, what little exposure she'd had to it.  
Akane had said that this program was something she would love, and 
she really didn't have much else to do so she had sat down to watch it 
with her friend.  However, as far as she could tell there was nothing but 
talking going on so far.  She knew that you did need some plot, to set 
up for the fighting later on, but she felt whoever had written this one 
had taken it just a little too far.  It had been almost half an hour now 
and there hadn't been a single fight!
	She continued to sit, shifting into a lotus position to help her 
concentrate on the show, however, she enjoyed little success.  How 
dare Ranma call me a girl!  I'm as much a guy as he is!  She tried to 
rally her righteous anger against her enemy, however she kept 
reviewing the last few weeks over and over in her mind.  School, going 
shopping, wearing a.slight shudder.skirt, talking like a girl, 
pretending to be a girl, even being forced to eat like a girl.  The more 
she thought about it the more she began to despair.
	Ranma was right.  I am becoming a girl.  She almost wanted to 
weep, which simply helped fuel her despair.  Only a girl would cry 
instead of doing something about it.  There had to be something she 
hadn't thought of yet!  Admitting her curse wasn't an option.  Not after 
lying for all this time.  And what would Akane say?
	That, however left only leaving, something which she didn't 
even want to contemplate.  If there was anything, anything at all she 
could do to avoid returning to that life of utter loneliness from before 
her visit to the Tendo's she would do it.  There had to be another way.
	Finally after twenty minutes of hard thought she made a 
decision.  There was one last thing she could try.  After that, she might 
as well pack her things and leave.  There was no other option.  
She excused herself from the program, saying she had some studying to 
do and quickly filled a cup from the kitchen with some warm water.  
After another thirty minutes of searching she arrived at her destination.  
Carefully, she knocked.
	"Yes?" the door opened a puzzled Nabiki looked on at the girl 
before her.  Ryoga couldn't even meet her eyes.  This was her only 
recourse.  If Nabiki couldn't help her, no one could.
	"Can I talk to you for a minute," as she spoke Ryoga idly 
fingered her pony tail.  A habit she was beginning to pick up the more 
time she spent in cursed form.
	"Alright.  But make it quick," Nabiki said curtly.  
	"Ummm, can I come in?" the nervous girl asked.  Nabiki 
rolled her eyes.
	"Alright, alright!" Nabiki walked over to her bed and sat down 
facing her guest.  "You have one minute." 
	Ryoga entered slowly, very nervous.  This was probably not 
one of her best idea's, but she really didn't know what else to do.  
Carefully, she shut the door behind her, and walked slowly into the 
room.  Before she could talk herself out of it, she dumped the contents 
of the cup over her head.  Instantly he felt the change as his clothes 
(one of his older outfits) suddenly became a good fit. 
	Nabiki just stared, mouth open.  A few seconds passed, then a 
few more.  The now male Ryoga began to fidget underneath her 
shocked gaze.  Finally she spoke.
	"That was warm water.  Wasn't it?" her voice was harsh, 
accusing.  
	Ryoga couldn't speak, he simply nodded.  
	"So all this time, you've been a guy!" Nabiki almost yelled it.  
Ryoga winced at her volume.  Suddenly she seemed to figure 
something else out.
	"Ranma's known all along, hasn't he?" she had passed beyond 
shock far into the realm of anger.
	"Yes," Ryoga swallowed, "we went to junior high together," 
he spoke softly trying not to look at her.  For a few seconds Nabiki 
seemed almost about to snap.  Then, slowly but surely, she regained 
control over herself.  
	"So what are you?  Some kind of pervert who likes pretending 
to be a girl?" her voice was as cool as ice.
	"It's not like that!" Ryoga protested becoming increasingly 
nervous.
	"Of course not." her voice dripped heavy with sarcasm.  
"Then tell me what it is like." she trailed off giving him questioning 
look.
	"Ryoga," he finished for her.
	"Ryo-ga," she said almost as if tasting the name.  "Alright, 
Ryoga.  Tell me the whole thing, right from the beginning.  Including 
why you're telling me this now,"  she leaned back in her chair and 
simply waited for him to begin.

	".and so I decided to come to you,"  Ryoga finished up 
nervously.  For the entire time he had talked Nabiki hadn't spoken 
word one.  There was silence.  After what seemed like eternity, but was 
probably only a few minutes, Nabiki slowly sat up in her chair and 
sighed.
	"Ryoga, I don't really know what to say," she said almost 
sounding sympathetic.  "You really are pretty stupid you know."  
Ryoga simply bit his lip and waited.  "Here's the way I see it.  You got 
into a mess, and instead of doing the intelligent thing you decided to 
compound it over and over again.  And even though I should just tell 
Akane everything," Ryoga's eyes got wide as panic began to rise.  "I'm 
going to help you instead."  The lost boy almost collapsed in relief.
	"Thanks.," he said barely keeping control of his voice, "I 
owe you one," he finished, really meaning it.
	"Yes," she said smiling, almost pleasantly, "you do.  And 
pretty soon your going to owe me an awful lot more than just the one."    

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There you go.  Tell me what you think.

I should be able to get the next chapter of Traveler out by Friday so don't
worry.  

Till later.

					Cat
					travis.mcintosh@student.oc.edu