Reading a letter in front of his dojo, Soun cried, "He's coming,
Ranma's finally coming."
Going inside his house, he went to gather his daughters up. He quickly
found Kasumi and Nabiki and explained what was going on. Nabiki filled
in Akane, after she had been dragged from the dojo. Nabiki had changed
her clothes to a classic kimono.
"One of us is going to be engaged to a boy? What is dad thinking?"
Akane demanded.
"Come off it, Akane," Nabiki chided. "You know how old-fashioned dad
is."
Akane growled and kept quiet. Nabiki smirked and heard a disturbance
at the front door. She went to see if it was Ranma and his father.
Nabiki quickly ran back and was followed by a panda carrying an
unconscious boy slung over its shoulder and carrying two packs.
Cowering behind her father, Nabiki asked, "Do you know this panda?"
Soun frantically shook his head in the negative. Ignoring the panda,
Akane went to the unconscious boy and gently shook him. The boy's eyes
snapped open and he leaped to his feet.
"Pops!! Why did you have to bring me here? I told you I don't want to
get married. And, I want to find a cure." the boy yelled as he kicked
the panda out the back door into the pond.
Soun snapped out of his daze and asked, "Are you Ranma Saotome?"
"Er, yeah," Ranma said still seething.
Nabiki stated, "And that panda is your father?"
"Stupid old man took us to a cursed training ground. He turns into a
panda whenever he gets splashed with cold water. If you want to talk to
him, just get some hot water."
Ranma while yawning, because he was still tired, sat down as he watched
the Tendo's pour hot and cold water over his father. At first they were
stunned by the change that occurred. Soun quickly recovered and told
his girls to stop playing with his friend's curse. He used some hot
water to change Genma back and started talking. While they were doing
that, Akane came over and sat down beside Ranma.
"What animal do you turn into?" Akane asked. "You said you wanted to
find a cure, so you must be cursed as well."
"I don't turn into an animal," Ranma stated and then whispered so
softly that Akane thought she imagined it, "Anything would have been
better than that."
Akane asked, "Then what do you change into?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Ranma said, and tried to stifle a
yawn. "Still tired."
After finishing his conversation with Soun, Genma walked over to Ranma
and declared, "On your feet, boy. I'm not going to hide any secrets
from my old friend."
Ranma jumped up and yelled, "Forget it, Pops. I don't want anyone to
know that."
A smirking Nabiki splashed Ranma in the face with a glass of water.
Her mouth opened in surprise as Ranma's form shrank and became a girl.
Akane, sitting behind Ranma, had her eyes glued on the now female
Ranma's back.
"Arrgh!!"
Ranma ran towards the kitchen. As she passed by everyone, they could
see the large key sticking out of Ranma-chan's back. Before she made it
to the tap, the key stopped rotating and she ceased moving.
Genma wailed, "Oh my poor son! He fell in the Spring of Drowned
Clockwork Girl. Now he turns into a wind-up girl whenever he's splashed
with cold water."
Looking at the wound-down girl in sympathy, Akane walked over and
grabbed the key. She grabbed the key and started winding the red-head
up. After the youngest Tendo had done so, Ranma jerked back to life and
headed for the tap.
"Ranma, wait," Akane called. "It's all right. I just wound you back
up."
Ranma stopped and turned around to see all the Tendo's staring at her.
Shrugging, she pointed at her father.
"Pops, I am not getting a fianc�e. I have more important things to
worry about," the clockwork girl said and pointed over her shoulder.
"Like this for instance. I don't want to go through life stopping every
so often and having to wait for someone to wind me up."
"This is a matter of family honor, boy."
"Yes, you have a choice of my three lovely daughters to choose from.
Now, who would...."
"Father," Kasumi interrupted, "I think the best thing for our guests
right now is some food and rest."
Nabiki added, "Ranma doesn't even know us, so how is he going to make a
decision on who would be best?"
"Er, I guess you're both right," Soun replied. "Ranma, Akane will show
you the bathroom and the guest room. Your father and I have a long
overdue Shogi game to start."
Akane motioned for Ranma to follow her upstairs. Ranma grabbed her
pack and climbed the steps. On the way up, the two had a conversation.
The youngest Tendo ignored the ticking coming from the other girl.
"You really don't like your curse, do you?"
"That's an understatement. If I just turned into a girl, I might have
handled it better. But, nooooo. I had to turn into a living toy."
Pursing her lips, Akane asked, "How often do you need wound up?"
The clockwork girl replied, "With no switching back and forth, a full
winding lasts four hours. If I'm tired or hungry as a boy when I switch
to a girl, I only have a few minutes before I wind down. If both, like
I was downstairs, I will wind down almost instantly."
"I see," the youngest Tendo replied, and a sudden thought struck her.
"Wait a minute! Are you telling me that winding your girl form up
neutralizes your need for eating and sleeping."
Ranma snorted, "Figured that one out, did you? I've slept, but I
haven't had a single scrap of food or drink of water ever since I got
cursed. Pops just wanted all the food to himself."
Akane stared at the living toy.
Seeing her look, Ranma answered, "Pops said that a martial artist must
use every possible resource that he has available to succeed."
"Well, here's your room," Akane said as she opened a door, and did her
best not to stare at the key in Ranma's back.
Walking inside, Ranma dropped her back and looked around the small,
unfurnished room. She didn't notice a pamphlet and sealed plastic bag
spill out of her backpack. Seeing the items, Akane picked them up.
"Ranma, what are these?" Akane asked while holding the bag and booklet
up.
The wind-up rolled her eyes and replied, "The booklet is a catalog from
Jusenkyo Supplies. The bag is some sort of one-shot curse. You open
the bag up and pour the contents into water and then it acts sort of
like a temporary Jusenkyo curse. Once your doused with hot water, the
curse is gone."
Opening her bag, Ranma showed that she had lots of the pouches.
"Apparently, I won some sort of contest while I was there. I won all
these packets of one-shot powders. All of them the same thing. And,
all of them completely worthless to me."
Wide-eyed, Akane asked, "Why do you say that?"
"Because, the packets duplicate the spring I fell into. Get some cold
water and some hot water and I'll show you."
Akane did as she was asked. When she returned with two glasses, Ranma
had already opened one of the pouches and had a stick out. Seeing that
one of the glasses had steam rising from it, the clockwork took the
other glass and poured the salt into it. Using her stick, she stirred
the water in the glass to make sure the salt was dissolved. After doing
so, she looked at Akane.
"Now what?" Akane asked, setting the hot water glass down.
Ranma threw the mixture at Akane, dousing her. After getting doused,
Akane felt her body tighten up and an intense itch in the center of her
back. She reached behind her and tried to scratch the itch, but her
fingers encountered a cool metal shaft rising from the middle of her
back. Eyes widening in shock, Akane was about to scream when Ranma
picked up the other glass and threw its contents at her.
"Don't worry. That stuff only works once," Ranma said, and then
muttered to herself. "Unlike mine, which is permanent."
Shaking off her near panic, Akane picked up one of the packets. "When
we have more time, would you mind if I used one of these? I think you
need someone to talk to who has some idea of what you go through."
"Sure. Take them all if you wish. I have no need for them. You can
even have the catalog as well."
"Thanks. Oh, I almost forgot. If you're a boy and asleep, do we douse
you with water and wind you up."
"NO!!!," Ranma stated, almost yelling. "If I am asleep or unconscious
when I'm wound up, I'll just walk around like a toy solider. Heck, if
I'm wound down and you splash me with hot water, I'll collapse
unconscious."
"Oh," Akane said meekly and changed the subjects. "I'll get you some
hot water, so you can change back and get some sleep."
Taking the packets and catalog to her room, Akane thought, 'Poor
Ranma. Imagine having to go through all that hassle. Well, I'd better
get Ranma some hot water.'
After leaving her room, Akane filled a glass with hot water and
returned to the guest room. Once she was gone, Nabiki snuck into
Akane's room and found one of the packets and the pamphlet. She quickly
headed to her room and started plotting.
'Kuno will pay handsomely for pictures of you acting like a doll,
Akane.'
----------------------
As the morning sun painted the Tendo Dojo gold, Akane woke up and
started her early morning jog. She ran in the slightly chilly air,
thinking of Ranma's situation.
'After school, I'll use one of those packets. I should see what Ranma
does go through when winding down.'
Akane suppressed a shudder as she recalled encountering that rod in her
back last night. She didn't have to look in a mirror to see that it was
actually a key, similar to Ranma's. Snapping her thoughts back to the
present, she saw that she was almost finished with her run. Entering
her house, she almost ran back out as she heard sounds of combat.
'Wonder what's going on,' Akane thought as she headed for the source of
the noise.
She relaxed as she saw it was just Ranma and his father sparring over
the pond. During one exchange, Genma knocked Ranma into the pond and
landed.
"You're getting sloppy," he said with a smirk.
The now female clockwork Ranma threw a tub of water at her father. The
water hit Genma first and then the tub. Genma was knocked down and
changed into a panda.
"Now who's getting sloppy?" Ranma asked.
The panda grabbed the tub and swung it down on top of Ranma's head.
Instead of knocking the clockwork girl to the ground, it buckled and
broke over the living toy's head with a sound like a shotgun going off.
Smirking, she grabbed the panda and threw it into the pond one-handed.
"You really got sloppy there, Pops," Ranma said, as she walked towards
the Tendo's dining room.
Genma grabbed a teakettle and poured its contents on himself, changing
back into a man. He smiled a bit at his offspring as he showed the
kettle was now completely empty. The wind-up girl ignored that and
entered the house. She started to sit down, but her key stopped turning
and she jerked to a halt.
Stepping behind the clockwork, Akane thought, 'This is bizarre.'
Still intrigued by the novelty, she rotated Ranma's key and heard
ratcheting sounds coming from the human toy. Each time she turned the
key a full revolution and had to switch hand positions, Ranma jerked a
bit each time the key was released. Shortly she encountered heavy
resistance. Deciding not to over-wind Ranma, Akane released the key.
She watched in morbid fascination as the clockwork girl's key started
unwinding.
'How does it feel to go through that?,' Akane thought. 'I'll find out
after school.'
Looking over her shoulder at Akane as she finished sitting down, Ranma
said, "Thanks. I appreciate it."
Nabiki smirked and said, "Keep it up, Akane, and you'll lose your
reputation for hating boys."
Looking bewildered, Ranma asked, "Hates boys? What?"
"It's like this," Akane started to explain. "There's this boy at
school called Tatewaki Kuno. He made a stupid speech saying that the
only way someone can date me is if they defeat me in combat. Now, every
day I have to beat up the entire male student body."
The only sounds at the table was the ticking coming from the human
clockwork. Ranma interlaced her fingers and put her chin on top of
them.
Soun cleared his throat ending that conversation. "Ranma, I understand
that you'll be going to school today."
The clockwork girl nodded. "After I change back, I'm supposed to
attend a school called Furinkan High."
"Good. You'll be in the same class as Akane. Don't worry about the
boys, Akane can take care of them."
Ranma stood up and headed for the kitchen to get some hot water and
Akane went upstairs after her book bag. Narrowing her eyes, Nabiki
watched her go.
Because of you, I lost my boyfriend, little sister. It's only right
that I get something back from you for that. Those packets aren't that
expensive and when I get enough money built up, I can order some water,'
Nabiki thought, as she listened to the two fathers' conversation.
Genma asked, "Judging by the dust in the dojo, I take it you've fallen
on hard times. Eh, Tendo?"
"I'm afraid so. I haven't had a student for a couple of months," Soun
replied with a sigh. "At least your son won't be that much of a strain
on our resources."
"Hand me the paper, Tendo," Genma said, with great reluctance.
"Apparently, I'm going to have to get a job."
"It's clear that Akane and Ranma seem to be the closest right now,"
Soun said.
"Agreed. Akane will be my son's fianc�e. We just have to see how
things work out."
Suppressing a growl, Nabiki shrugged and also headed upstairs to
prepare for school.
--------------------------------
With wind whipping through their hair and a whooshing sound in their
ears, Ranma and Akane ran to school. Both of them kept an eye out for
any source of water that would trigger Ranma's curse.
Akane asked, "Ranma, when we get out of school, will you help me with
something?"
"Err. Sure," Ranma called down from the top of the fence he was
running along. "What with?"
"I'm going to use one of those packets you gave me last night. I'm
going to be hungry when I do so. I want you to wind me back up. I am
curious about what you go through every day.
"Uh. Right," Ranma replied, unsure. "All right, I guess I can do
that."
Looking down at Akane, he made an observation.
"Akane, you might want to change the way you have your hair. The way
it is now, you might have a problem."
'I took a long time to get my hair the way it was and there is nothing
wrong with it,' Akane thought angrily, and she spat, "Oh? Really? And,
what might that be?"
"Your hair is too long. It might get caught in the key and jam it up,"
he replied, wincing a bit at the vitriol.
Anger subsiding, the Tendo girl meekly said, "Oh. I guess I could put
it up in a ponytail to keep my hair out of the way."
Not commenting, Ranma looked ahead and saw the clock of the school. He
jumped down to the street and ran beside Akane.
"Almost there," he called out. "If we hurry, we'll have twenty minutes
to spare."
"Stay out of the way," Akane said and started chanting, "Hate boys.
Hate boys. I really, really hate boys."
Casting a concerned glance at Akane, Ranma jumped on top of the
school's fence and looked down. He watched in a bit of awe as Akane
smashed through a huge group of boys. Among them were sumo wrestlers, a
baseball team, boxers, and others. After seeing the last one fall, he
jumped down.
"You go through that every day?"
"I'd wish they'd give it a rest."
Ranma shrugged and headed for the school's entrance when a shout caught
his attention.
"You there! You are being awfully familiar with the fair Akane Tendo!
What have you to say for yourself, knave?"
Turning around, Ranma saw a boy slightly older than him, dressed in a
Kendo outfit and carrying a wooden sword. He cast a glance skywards and
saw dark clouds forming.
'I have no intention of revealing my curse to everyone,' Ranma thought,
and then replied, "Her father and mine were trained at the same time by
the same person. Pops is just visiting an old friend."
Lowering his sword a bit, the boy replied, "I see. Know this: I,
Tatewaki Kuno the Blue Thunder of Furinkian High, shall smite any man
who threatens the fair Akane's honor. For a flower such as she can only
be protected by the most noble and brave."
"Oh brother," Ranma muttered as he rolled his eyes. "I think I'll head
inside. I don't want to be late for my first day at school."
Flabbergasted, Kuno stared at Ranma's receding form.
"Is he not man enough even to try and fight to see if he's worthy of
dating the fair Akane Tendo? What sort of man is he?"
Rushing past the dazed Kuno, Akane called, "One who has more important
things to worry about than a date."
Pursing his lips, the kendoist strolled into the school. "What could
be more important than Akane Tendo?"
From a third story window, Nabiki had watched the scene unfold. She
was still a bit miffed that her dad had chosen Akane to be Ranma's
fianc�e, but somewhat relieved as well.
'I'll have to be careful. If I push them together too fast, I'll lose
money. But I also don't want to separate them. I might be forced to
marry that half clockwork.'
Musing on what she overheard last night, Nabiki thought, 'Akane said
that she'll try one of the packets later. My guess is after school.
I've got some fresh film. Now, all I have to do is convince Akane to
wear that outfit.'
---------
Near the lockers, Akane and Ranma were putting their shoes in their
respective cubicles. Ranma kept throwing concerned glances at Akane,
because she was still seething.
"Are you all right?" Ranma asked.
Clenching and unclenching her fists in an effort not to yell, Akane
replied, "That daily battle is stressing me out. I haven't been able to
relax for quite a while now. Don't even bother saying meditation. I've
tried it and several other stress reducing activities, to no effect."
"Oh," Ranma said and quickly changed the subjects. "Which way is the
classroom?"
"This way," the youngest Tendo replied and headed down a corridor.
Shrugging, Ranma followed.
----------------------------------
During lunch, Nabiki was interrupted by Kuno, who sat down across from
her.
"Nabiki Tendo, I require your services. I need to know who that boy
was that accompanied Akane to school," Kuno said, while sliding a
thousand yen note to her.
Taking the note, Nabiki replied, "His name is Ranma Saotome. His
father and mine are old training buddies."
"So that is the truth. I had my doubts about that," Kuno said, and
then ranted, "Foul cur! Using your father to get to the fair Akane. I
must teach you a lesson about that."
'Just like you taught my boyfriend about not using me?' Nabiki thought,
watching Kuno storm off.
------------
Sitting outside, Ranma watched Akane and the other girls play
baseball. Out of the side of his left eye, he spotted Kuno coming
towards him. He quickly jumped to his feet and leaned against a nearby
tree.
"Knave! How dare you use your father's connection to Akane's father to
date her! You must first defeat her in combat. Those are the only
conditions that I will accept!" Kuno ranted.
"Date her?" Ranma asked, with a smirk on his face. "I have no
intention of dating anyone at the moment, you flake."
"You lie!" the kendoist screamed and charged Ranma.
Ranma jumped out of the way as the bokken sliced through the tree he
was leaning against. With a rush of falling leaves, the tree fell over
with a loud thud. Looking at the now dead plant, Ranma swallowed and
dropped into a fighting stance.
'Okay, he's a nutcase, but a dangerous one.'
The pig-tailed boy dropped to one knee and leg swept Kuno. Feeling his
legs being knocked out from under him, Tatewaki did a forward roll and
landed back on his feet. Ranma did a flying kick to try and knock Kuno
out. The kendoist brought his bokken up and blocked the kick. For a
brief moment, Ranma's foot was pushing in on Kuno's bokken. Kuno used
all his might and pushed Ranma away. The pig-tailed boy crashed through
some bushes and into a ceramic birdbath, shattering it. The water in
the birdbath was enough to trigger Ranma's curse. A rustling in the
bushes told the clockwork, that Kuno was coming. Turning she faced
Kuno, unaware of the change. As the kendoist broke through the hedge,
he spotted Ranma and stopped, confused. Ranma did a circle kick to
Kuno's head and knocked him out. Looking down at Kuno, the living toy
heard a shout.
"Ranma, are you all right?" Akane called. "I saw Kuno attack you
and..."
"I'm fine," Ranma replied. "Kuno didn't have much in him."
Akane retorted, "Or maybe, your current form is too much for him.
Didn't you notice that you changed?"
Ranma closed her eyes and felt the key turning in her back. Opening
them, she spoke to Akane.
"Not until you mentioned it."
"Um. Do you need rewound?"
Shaking her head, Ranma said, "Not at the moment. Let's go home. I
don't want to deal with Kuno again today."
The youngest Tendo thought about it and nodded. The two girls headed
back home, leaving Kuno lying on the ground. Moaning a bit, Kuno
regained some consioussness.
"Who was she? What a fiery spirit. I will allow her to date with me,"
Kuno mumbled, before dropping back to sleep.
----------------------------------------
Entering the Tendo kitchen, Akane was carrying a small packet. She
smiled as she found an old plastic cup that no one used. She filled the
cup with water and headed for the dojo. Opening the door to the gym,
she spotted Ranma, in his male form, doing katas. She winced a bit as
her stomach growled from a lack of food.
"Ranma," Akane called. "I'm ready."
Stopping his katas, Ranma turned and saw Akane. He was a bit suprised
at Akane's choice of clothes. She was wearing thigh high white boots
and a yellow, shiny mini-dress that left her arms exposed. Plus, her
hair was done up in a pony-tail.
"Er. Akane, what's with the get-up?"
Blushing a bit, Akane replied, "Something Nabiki said to me before
lunch, made a bit of sense. She said that this costume would go well
with a life-sized wind-up, like yourself. Also, it's the only thing I
have that I don't mind having a hole put through the back of."
"Oh. Um. Well let's begin," Ranma said. 'I don't think I could wear
something like that.'
Taking the glass of water and the packet, Ranma prepared the
concoction. He splashed Akane with the water when he was done. As soon
as the water hit her, Akane felt her skin tighten up and harden. The
itching sensation in the middle of her back had returned, but she was
aware of the feeling of a rod in the center of her back revolving. In
her mind, an almost overpowering compulsion to move pushed in on her
thoughts. Putting her hand on her stomach, she felt something different
about her midriff, beyond the harder and stiffer body of a doll.
The clockwork Akane said, "This is strange. I feel so different. I
was hungry when I came here, so it shouldn't be too much longer."
The two waited until Akane had wound down. As she wound down, she saw
that Ranma had lied to her, she was fully aware of what was going on
around her. Feeling his face flush, Ranma gripped the key in Akane's
back and started turning. As the key turned, Akane felt as if someone
had plugged her into an outlet. The wave after wave of energy coming
from her spring being tightened caused her body to tingle. Each crank
caused her to straighten up a bit more. She was able to move again once
Ranma had finished winding her up and released her key.
Looking at Ranma, Akane said, "That was intense. Why did you lie about
being aware while you were wound down?"
"I don't want heaps of pity for my condition. By saying that I'm
asleep, I keep it down."
"Oh," Akane replied. Putting her hand on her stomach, Akane asked,
"What is with this?"
Seeing what she was doing, Ranma replied, "Oh. That's a button. I've
pushed mine and it does nothing."
Rolling her eyes skyward, Akane retorted, "Maybe the person herself
can't activate the button. Did you ask your father about it?"
"Have you flipped? If I asked Pops something like that, he would say
I'm not a true martial artist. Then, he'd probably come up with some
strange training."
Feeling extremly curious about the button, Akane pondered her choices.
She could ask Ranma to push it and find out what it did, but would put
her at some risk, or she could forget about it and be left forever
wondering about its function. She immediately discarded pushing the
button on Ranma's clockwork form.
Screwing up her courage, Akane said, "Ranma, push my button. I want to
know."
Trying to keep his embarrassment down, Ranma's finger darted out as
fast as he could muster. It pushed in on Akane's belly button. Both
Akane and Ranma heard a loud click. Stiffing up, Akane marched around
the dojo in a stiff-legged style with arms swing rythmically back and
forth. Occasionly she would bounce off a wall, as she walked straight
into it. Every time she did, she left dents in the wood from where her
arms and body hit the wall.
'She's walking around like a toy soldier,' Ranma thought, wonderingly.
'She wasn't asleep. Then how.... The button.'
With that revelation, Ranma jumped in front of the toy Tendo and jabbed
his finger out again. Once again a loud click was heard in the dojo, as
Akane dropped back into a more regular stance.
"Okay," Akane commented, "So, that's what it's like to be a toy
soldier."
"Akane, are you all right?"
Having a strange look on her face, Akane replied, "I'm fine, Ranma. I
just didn't think that would happen."
Curious, Ranma asked, "How did it feel?"
Shaking her head, Akane replied, "I'm not going to spoil it for you.
If you'll excuse me, I'm going to change back."
Ranma nodded and went back to his katas. He watched Akane leave and
thought about what had just happend.
'So, that's what that button is for. I'm glad I didn't ask Pops. He
would have found some way to use it to his advantage. Funny, it almost
sounded like she regretted changing back. Nah, just my imagination.'