FFML Note:

For those who didn't catch the first eight chapters of 'newRanma'
on either FFML-R or PMak's echo, let me explain that this is my
'fun' story. I'm writing sheerly for the enjoyment factor, and for
no other reason while I get my ass in gear and polish out the
problems in 'THE CLAN' so I can finish it. Therefore, 'newRanma'
has had no pre-reading other than basic proofing and editing on my
part.

C&C, proofing, and plot suggestions are still very much welcome.
If you like my story, please mail me.

Some readers may have expected this chapter to be entitled 'Dancing'.
I came across the old author's issue that there was too much material
in 'Dancing' that was too thematically different. Therefore, I split
what I had into two smaller chapters. This means that 'Dancing' is 90%
done. I should be able to release it at the end of next week.

All previous chapters can be found on my fanfic page:

http://www.furinkan.net/fanfic/

Ranma and his friends belong to Rumiko Takahashi. They're
used here without permission.

This chapter contains some adult material. It's been given a
[LIME] tag.

------------------------------
newRanma 9: Burning

by Chris Jones
------------------------------

    Ranma struggled futilely at the bonds that held her
wrists together. She could feel the edge of Tendou's table
digging into her neck. No matter how she twisted, she couldn't
break free.

    "Please, Daddy," she begged, tears coursing down her
face. "Don't do this!"

    "Be quiet, Ranma," Genma growled, bringing all his weight
to bear on his child's kicking legs. After finally managing to
halt her trashing, he looped a coil of rope around each of her
ankles. He used the rope to bind them to opposite legs of the
table.

    Then, to Ranma's horror, he began to remove his own
clothes.

    "NO! DADDY, NO!"

    Exposed, and helpless, Ranma began to scream.

    * * *

    Ranma woke breathing hard and covered in a sheen of
sweat. Gulping in air, she forced herself into a sitting
position. Next to her, she could see the curved shape of her
father's back slowly rising and falling in the moonlight.
Occasionally, a great snore tore the silence of the night,
rumbling in a deep bass register.

    Ranma exhaled, and began to take low, deep breaths. She
tried to lay back down, but after only a few seconds, hopped to
her feet. She grabbed a pillow and her futon, and padded silently
out of the room.

    She knocked on Akane's door.

    After a few seconds, rubbing the sleep-crust out of one
eye, Akane opened the door and stared blearily at Ranma.

    "Akane, can I sleep in your room?"

    "Huh?" Akane asked in the confusion that plagues people
who have just woken. "You have your own room, Ranma," she
grumbled.

    "Pops is in there tonight."

    "Mmm... Jus' second," Akane said, closing her door.

    There was a rustling sound from behind the door for a few
seconds. Akane opened the door again, and pointed to a spot on
the floor across from her bed.

    "Thanks," Ranma said, spreading her futon out.

    "Mmm... No hentai stuff," Akane mumbled climbing under
her covers.

    "NO!" Ranma agreed fervently.

* * *

    "Ran-chan?" Ukyou asked the next afternoon. "Are you
okay, honey?"

    "Hmm?" Ranma looked up from her plate. "Huh?"

    "You're not eating. Is something bothering you?"

    Ranma glanced down. She had taken a few bites of the
okonomiyaki that Ukyou had served her, but had mostly just been
cutting it into smaller and smaller pieces while she was lost in
thought. "Uh... no. Just... I ain't been sleepin' too good. Ya
know?"

    Ukyou smiled wickedly. "Maybe it's because you're always
sleeping on the floor in that cold, hard futon. I wouldn't mind
if you stayed over and slept in my bed for a few nights."

    "Uh..."

    "It'd do you a lot of good," Ukyou suggested in a
reasonable tone.

    "Maybe some other time, Ucchan," Ranma said. She
shuddered slightly. The last thing she wanted to do was give
herself reason to spend time with *anyone* else just before she
went to sleep. She didn't remember having any dreams after she
went to sleep on Akane's floor, but...

    "Are you sure you're okay, Ran-chan?" Ukyou asked. "You
don't look very happy."

    "I... I just got a lot on my mind, okay?"

    Ukyou sighed. She knew that Ranma had just gotten back
from a trip to the psychologist's office. She wondered if that
old quack was helping her fiancee, or just causing problems.

    * * *

    "And you continued to have the dreams, even after you
left the hospital?" Makuna asked, earlier that day.

    Ranma nodded, a haunted expression on her face. "Yeah.
Every night. Sometimes more than once or twice in the same night.
It's been like this for a week."

    Makuna glanced at her once. Her eyes were wide, and she
was trembling somewhat as she spoke. She had pulled her legs up
into the chair and had wrapped her arms around them. She was
almost curled into a fetal position.

    "Without exception, the dreams you've been having are
about... men?"

    Ranma nodded. "Except for Ucchan, who's really a girl. In
the dreams, she's always a man. But yeah, it's always men.
Sometimes it's her, or Ryouga again, or Mousse, or the guys from
school, or even my guy-side. God, those are awful. Sometimes it's
Doctor Tofuu, and sometimes it's Akane's dad. Last night..."
Ranma gulped, unable to continue.

    "It was your father?" Makuna-sensei asked.

    "He... I think he had a fight with my mom," Ranma said
weakly. "We were all three sleepin' in the same room until my
surgery, and after that, Kasumi cleaned out the room Happosai had
been staying in for them so that they would have more privacy.
Anyway, he came into the guest room and rolled out his futon, and
went to sleep there instead of with my mom. And then... and
then..." Ranma gulped loudly. She clenched her teeth, horror and
self loathing beginning to show on her face.

    Makuna put down his pad and pencil. He folded his hands
together and looked at the girl seriously.

    "Ranma," he began, "Erotic dreams are probably one of the
most common problems my patients bring to me, especially when,
like in your case, they dream about sexual relations with those
they would never seriously consider in real life. I want you to
know that dreams like those you describe are normal and even
common."

    "Even... even the ones that... that..." Ranma was
stuttering badly, unable to complete her sentence.

    "Even the dreams that are violent in nature," Makuna
assured her. "Do you seriously belive that your father would even
*consider* raping you?"

    Ranma shook her head, trying to keep the tears out of her
eyes. Damn it! Why was she having so much trouble keeping from
crying lately?

    "Ranma," Makuna said. "Right now, you are a young woman
with a young woman's brain structures, a young woman's glands,
and a young woman's hormones. The things you are dreaming about
are perfectly normal for a young woman. Now unless I'm mistaken,
with a few exceptions like last night, most of these dreams are
pleasant up until you actually wake up, correct?"

    Ranma nodded, her eyes puffy and red.

    "And I don't think you would be nearly so upset if the
subject of your dreams was female rather than male. Perhaps you
should try to remember that while you are dreaming. Not everyone
can do that, of course, but if you make the decision to dream
about sex with a woman instead of a man, you can probably alter
your dreams so that they don't upset you so much."

    "I'll try." Ranma said hesitantly

    "And, of course, you can fantasize about either gender as
much or as little as you like during waking hours."

    "What?" Ranma asked.

    "You know," Makuna explained. "Sexual fantasy? Imagining
having sex with whomever you choose."

    Ranma blinked in surprise, as if the notion had never
occurred to her before.

* * *

    After leaving Ucchan's, Ranma did her best to keep from
thinking about the okonomiyaki chef's body moving against hers.
It was true that she had thought about the way that Ukyou's body
looked, especially when the chef was wearing snug pants or the
tights she usually wore with her okonomiyaki vendor's uniform.
Now it was all she could do not to think about having those long,
slender legs wrapped around her body.

    In the light of day, the traumatic nightmare she had had
the night before faded in her memory. It was replaced in
intensity with more gentle images of Ukyou. Good ol' Ucchan, who
looked great in feminine clothes. Good ol' Ucchan, who would look
even better in no clothes at all.

    Was this what Makuna-sensei meant by 'sexual fantasy'?

    By the time she returned home, Ranma's face was burning
red.

    "Tadaima!" Ranma called out upon stepping into the front
room, her hands thrust down into the pockets of her baggy pants.

    "Hello, Ranma-chan," Kasumi said, smiling at the shorter
girl as she walked past, carrying a basket of laundry.

    Ranma couldn't help but notice the way the tall girl's
full, pert breasts bounced with every step. Ranma gulped, seeing
in her mind, those same breasts unbound by clothing or lingerie.
Cherry-like nipples pointed alternately towards the heavens and
the earth. Ranma's ears began to burn.

    Gulping, she turned away from Kasumi and ran into the
kitchen. She went to the faucet and turned on the cold water.
Hoping that it would cool down the burning feeling all over her
face and neck, Ranma leaned over and began to drink from the
spigot.

    "Oh, hi, Ranma," Akane said from behind her.

    Her eyes wide, Ranma turned to see Akane, who was
standing on the other side of the counter wearing a pair of oven
mitts and an apron over her short dress. She was beating a rather
sticky-looking mixture of dough and egg whites in a copper mixing
bowl.

    "Uhh, hi," Ranma mumbled.

    "Are you doing okay?" Akane asked. "You look flushed."

    "I... ah... ran all the way back from the doctor's
office," Ranma lied, hoping that Akane couldn't tell that in
Ranma's mind's eye, she was wearing *only* an apron and oven
mitts, and that the sticky batter clung to her body in small
clumps, just waiting for Ranma to lick them away.

    "Would you like to try some of my cookies later?" Akane
said. "I've been working hard on the recipe and--"

    "Sure, I'll have a taste," Ranma said, her eyes crossing,
"Huh?" Did she just volunteer to eat Akane's cooking? What had
that moron Makuna got her into?!

    "You don't look so good, Ranma," Akane said in concern.
"Maybe you should lie down."

    "Yeah," Ranma agreed. Laying down where she couldn't see
anyone sounded like a very good idea. She turned to walk out of
the kitchen. "You know, Akane. You'd probably have an easier time
if you took off your dr-- mitts."

    "You think so?"

    Did she just almost tell Akane to take off her dress?
God, what was wrong with her?!

    "Hey, Ranma-kun," Nabiki greeted her as she ran up the
stairs. "You want to run an errand for me?"

    Only if it involves taking all our clothes off and...

    "Yipe!" Ranma cried out, running away from Nabiki and
into her room. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't quit
thinking about Nabiki's naked body, draped all over her own.
Their lips and hands roamed all over, kissing, sucking,
caressing, pinching...

    Ranma began to shake. She knelt on her futon and buried
her face in her pillow.

    "Ranma-chan," a voice sounded out behind her. "Are you
okay? Kasumi said that she thought you weren't feeling well."

    Ranma's shaking intensified as a pair of slender arms
wrapped around her waist. They lifted her out of her crouch.
Ranma suddenly felt herself being held close to a lithe, feminine
body.

    "Mom?" Ranma squeaked.

    The woman's light perfume and the scent of her hair
permeated Ranma's senses. She could feel a pair of breasts softly
pushing into her back.

    "What is it, Ranma?" Nodoka asked, gently caressing her
son-turned-daughter's face in motherly concern.

    Ranma screamed, broke out of her mother's embrace, and
ran from the house.

* * *

    Over the course of the next few days, Ranma had to
relearn concentration. She did her best to never glance at any of
the women in the house below the collar. She felt uncomfortable
and vulnerable the whole time. Worse, whenever her mother came
near her, Ranma felt like she wanted to wash her mind out with
soap.

    'Soul of Ice' had gone completely out the window.
Instead, Ranma felt like she had a constant fever.

    The dreams and nightmares continued with no abatement.
Ranma just couldn't seem to summon the level of will necessary to
realize she was dreaming whenever the erotic visions assailed
her. Some of the dreams were incredibly violent. Ranma didn't
know what was worse, the violent, rapacious dreams, or the dreams
in which she participated willingly.

    Another visit to the psychologist was no help. Makuna
told her that what she was going through was normal and suggested
that she do her best to enjoy the ride.

    Ranma did her best to regain a new equilibrium. She spent
all day most days doing her best to bury herself in training or
homework. She spent most evenings curled up into a tiny ball in
her futon, consumed in licentious fantasy but dreading the dreams
that would come just as soon as fell asleep.

    There was no relief for her, and it was beginning to
show. Ranma noticed her usually steady hands begin to tremble.
Her voice began to quaver, and the vocal slips became more and
more frequent.

    "Ranma, would you translate the sentence on the
chalkboard?" Hinako asked one day in class.

    "Ah... Uhh... P-please remove your clothing because I
can't see your brea-- Wait a second. That can't be right."

    Hinako sweatdropped. "Ukyou-kun," she prompted as
everyone in the glass began to giggle quietly. "Would you please
translate the sentence?"

    "Please remove your hat because I can't see the movie
screen," Ukyou said quietly, her eyes fixed on Ranma.

    The red-head's blush was deepening into the purple range.
She wished she could just sink down in her seat and out of sight.
Worse, she could feel that daggers that Ukyou and Akane were
staring into her back.

* * *

    "Cute move in class today," Hiroshi noted as Ranma
stormed into the boys' locker room after lunch. "I can't see your
breasts! That's gonna be a classic."

    "Shut up, Hiroshi," Ranma hissed, glaring around at
everyone around her.

    Most of the boys, Hiroshi and Daisuke being the notable
exceptions, quickly pulled on their gym clothes and vacated the
locker room.

    "You've been kinda weird lately, Ranma," Daisuke noted,
lounging against one of the lockers. "Somethin' been eating at
you?"

    "Hmm... maybe it's this GODDAMNED CURSE!" she snapped.
"It has been forty-two days since I've been able to piss standing
up. Do you have any idea what that would do to a man? I would
commit seppuku right now if it meant I didn't have to squat to
pee."

    "Damn," Hiroshi said, whistling. Ranma was fairly
shaking. "I knew it was tough on you, but I didn't realize it was
bugging you so much."

    "You're almost to the half-way point," Daisuke said,
gripping Ranma's shoulder in encouragement. "Only about nine or
ten more weeks, right?"

    The touch was like lightning. His fingers, closing on
her... His hand, caressing her flesh... His body was so close to
hers. Every nerve ending in Ranma's body caught fire. Every hair
stood on end. Her belly began to burn and her knees started to
clench.

    "Don't do that!" Ranma shouted.

    "Huh?"

    "Dai, if you don't take you hand off me, I'm gonna tear
it off," Ranma warned, in an agitated tone.

    Daisuke pulled his hand away, staring in concern and more
than a little bit of fear.

    "Ranma, you okay?" Hiroshi asked.

    "NO! I'm not okay!" Ranma yelled, feeling the wetness
begin to gather at the corner of her eyes.  She wouldn't cry! She
wouldn't! Not in front of these two. Never!

    Ranma clenched her fists and took a deep breath. She
opened her eyes again to see Daisuke counting on his fingers.

    "What are you doing?" she asked.

    "Uhh... six weeks," Daisuke concluded. "Right?"

    Hiroshi made some frantic 'no' gestures, which Ranma just
barely caught out of the corner of her eye.

    "What?" she asked.

    "Uhh... Damn. I'm about to get beat up," Daisuke said.
"Well..."

    "Out with it, Dai," Ranma said in a threatening tone.

    Hiroshi shook his head sadly. "Daisuke, we hardly knew
ye..."

    "It's not PMS," Daisuke said, cringing away from Ranma.
"I mean, not unless you get it a *lot* earlier than any of the
other women I know."

    "P-P-PMS?" Ranma asked, her voice raising.

    "Ranma, don't kill Daisuke. His mother will never forgive
me for letting him die," Hiroshi said.

    "You think.... You think I've got... got..."

    "Calm down, Ranma," Hiroshi said, stepping behind the
girl and putting his hand on her arm.

    Ranma froze. She could feel the warmth of his body
through her clothes. She could feel her nipples stiffening,
dragging across the fabric inside her shirt. His hand burned
where it touched her.

    Ranma yelped and jumped away from the two.

    "Stay away!" she shouted.

    "Seriously, Ranma," Hiroshi said. "You've gotta calm
down, or you're gonna blow a fuse."

    "Yeah," Ranma said, her body shaking. Her legs seemed to
be having trouble supporting her weight. "Calm down. Yeah..." She
wanted nothing more than to collapse on the floor and... and...

    Cry? That wasn't right. She wanted to cry, but she also
wanted to scream in frustration and tear off all her clothes
and... and... and...

    "Here, bud," Daisuke said, picking Ranma's satchel up off
the floor where she had thrown it when she walked in. "Go home
and cool off for a while."

    After a few seconds' thought, he opened his own satchel
and pulled out several thick manga and transferred them to
Ranma's. "Look at these if you want. They're great for
relaxation."

    "Relaxation," Hiroshi noted sarcastically. "Yeah,
something like that, at any rate."

    "Maybe you're right," Ranma said, trying to get her
ragged breathing under control. "I gotta calm down. I... Yeah.
Going home sounds like a good idea."

    The two young men watched Ranma walk shakily out of the
room.

    "Note to self," Hiroshi said. "Don't touch Ranma anymore
when he's a she."

    "What? Why not?" Daisuke asked, looking at his own hand.
"What do you think's gotten into her?"

    "Same thing that gets into any other girl," Hiroshi said.

    Daisuke blinked. "I don't have sisters or a steady
girlfriend. For those of us less privileged, will you please
enlighten us?"

    Hiroshi nodded. "Would you horse around with any *other*
girl like you just were with Ranma?"

    "Well, no. Not unless I was... you know."

    "And then it wouldn't really be horsing around, would
it?" Hiroshi asked, beginning to change into his gym clothes.

    Daisuke's eyes widened.

    "When we were younger, my sister and I wrestled a lot,"
Hiroshi said quietly. "We had tickle fights and pillow fights and
things like that. When we started getting a little older, we...
we had to stop," he admitted. "It started to get weird. It
started to be more than just playing," he said in a voice tinged
with shame. "Two guys can wrestle or punch each other or slap
each other on the back. Two girls can hug, or even kiss. If a guy
puts his hands on a girl, even if it's really innocent, it still
means something."

    "But... No! Ranma's different," Daisuke protested.
"She's... He's a guy! Right?"

    "You tell me," Hiroshi said. "If you didn't know she was
really a guy... Hell, before we did know she was a guy, we were
trying to get Ranma to introduce us to his cute sister! The point
is, even if it doesn't mean anything to us, I think it's starting
to mean something to her."

    The two boys looked seriously at each other for a second
and then turned away to finish putting on their gym clothes.

    "I don't think we should tell anyone," Daisuke said as
they left the locker room. "Especially not Ranma."

    "Agreed," Hiroshi said. "God, I hope she changes back
soon. This is starting to get really messed up."

* * *

    Ranma visited the school infirmary and told the matronly
nurse inside that she needed to leave for the day. Since Ranma
was more or less still under doctor's supervision, she could get
away with leaving whenever she felt 'sick' or 'tired'. She hadn't
abused her privileges much, simply because she had had quite
enough of lazing around the house. Right now, however, she didn't
know what she felt, but knew that if she stayed around other
people much longer it was going to come boiling out of her.

    Instead of going home, she went to the Nerima Zoo.
Staying well away from the big cats, Ranma made her way over to
the primate cages. There was a peanut dispenser next to the
spider monkey cage, so she bought a double handful of peanuts.
She threw them one by one to the screeching animals, trying all
the while to sort out what was going on inside her tormented
brain.

    What she had felt, when Hiroshi and Daisuke had oh-so
innocently laid hands on her, was not so innocent a feeling.

     It was a feeling she didn't want, especially when it
came from guys.

    Ranma felt out of control, like her body was trying to
make her decisions for her. Even if she didn't like it, she had
to admit to herself that the feelings the two inspired were the
now-familiar sensations of arousal. The quickening of pulse and
breath, the tingling of her skin, the urgent, almost burning
sensation from her abdomen, the slight moisture that seemed to
accumulate between her legs -- all those symptoms were present.
It horrified her. It disgusted her.

    "Stupid body," Ranma grumbled. "Stupid hormones. Stupid,
freakin' Tofuu-sensei."

    Makuna seemed to be no help at all either. In fact, the
psychologist seemed quite content that what Ranma was going
through was normal and to be expected. Well, Ranma didn't like
it! Her... *HIS* whole life had been spent in training to
perfectly control her... *HIS* body. All that control and self-
confidence seemed to be going out the window.

    Ranma had been shaken to her core. All her carefully-
honed skills were starting to wane from over a month of disuse.
All her techniques were becoming rusty from sitting idle. In
return, she was now subject to a whole world full of urges and
pressures that she was ill-equipped to deal with.

    "I wish I had never had the damned surgery," Ranma
mumbled. "*Anything* would be better than this."

    One of her thrown peanuts bounced off a monkey's head.
Another monkey snatched it before he could get to it. The animal
screeched, angry that he had missed his snack.

    Jostled out of her depression, Ranma giggled quietly and
tossed another peanut. This one lodged in the chain-link fence
that surrounded the monkeys' area.

    "Sorry," Ranma laughed, seeing the monkey scramble up the
chain link to claim the nut before any of his fellows saw it.

    The monkey, and it was obviously male from what Ranma
could see as it climbed, dropped back to the floor of the cage
and began to chew on the peanut, gnawing through the pulpy hull
and into the meat of the nut.

    Then another monkey came over, intent on stealing the
morsel.

    The first monkey screeched and batted at the second.
Then, for apparently no reason at all, the second monkey jumped
on the first monkey's back and began to hump.

    Ranma blinked.

    The bottom-most monkey seemed to be getting into it, and
abandoned his peanut.

    "What the hell are you two doing?" Ranma yelled.

    "SCREECH!SCREECH!SCREECH!SCREECH!SCREECH!SCREECH!" both
monkeys yelled, intent on their shared task.

    "AAAGGHH! You're both boys!"

    "Haw! I'm afraid that's pretty useless, missy," a old man
said from nearby. He was clad in the zoo's uniform and was
sweeping the walk in front of the cage. "They're just little
animals, and do what they want. They don't care what no one
thinks." He leered toothlessly at Ranma.

    "Fine, you can all be perverts," she said, tossing the
rest of her peanuts into the cage. "I don't care if everyone in
the world is a pervert!"

    * * *

    "Ranma no hentai!" Akane yelled.

    Both girls stared in horror at Ranma's satchel, which had
fallen over in the Tendou's living room after Ranma returned home
that afternoon.

    "They're not mine!" Ranma screamed in protest.

    Indeed, the magazines that Daisuke had placed in her bag
had fallen out. Before Ranma realized what had happened, Akane
had seen the covers of 'Lunatic Paradise 9', a naughty Sailor
Moon doujinshi, and 'Lovely Tentacle Warrior Force Sexy', which
Ranma didn't even want to guess about.

    "Whose are they then?" Akane demanded in an accusing
tone. "Why would you have them if they weren't yours?"

    "Daisuke put them there. I wasn't even watching! I
swear!"

    "What on earth are we arguing about, ladies?" Nabiki
asked, striding into the room.

    Ranma grabbed the magazines away from Akane and stuffed
them back into the satchel.

    "Roses of Passion," Nabiki read, picking up a third book
that had somehow escaped Ranma and Akane's notice. "Hmmm... very
nice artwork," she noted, flipping through the pages. "I knew
you've been reading Utena lately, Ranma, but I had no clue you
were into doujinshi like this."

    Nabiki held the book up, which prominently displayed a
naked, gagged Utena on the cover. She was bound with thorny rose
vines while Anthy stood behind her wearing a leather bustier and
holding a bull-whip.

    "AARRGHH!! IT'S NOT MINE!" Ranma shouted.

    "What's not yours?" Genma asked.

    Ranma snatched the Utena doujinshi and stuffed it into
her satchel. "Nothing, Pops!" she screamed. Her eyes were wide
and her hands were shaking.

    "I want nothing to do with you, you pervert!" Akane
yelled, storming away.

    "Ranma! Why have you upset your fiancee?" Soun demanded,
entering the room and standing next to Genma.

    "I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Ranma yelled.

    "It's not manly to lie, Ranma-chan," Nodoka warned from
behind her.

    "Someone tell me what's going on!" Genma demanded. "Are
you holding out on me, boy? If you've got food, it's only decent
to share with your poor, undernourished father."

    "It's nothing like that!" Ranma protested.

    "Ranma *is* hiding something," Nabiki said. "I could be
persuaded to spill the beans, Uncle Saotome."

    "Beans? I'll give you a shiny ten-yen piece!" Genma
offered.

    "Please!" Nabiki said in an insulted tone. "I wouldn't
think of releasing any information for less than five thousand!"

    "Okay," Genma said, reaching into his pocket.

    "Nabiki!" Ranma yelled in horror.

    "You can always outbid him, Ranma-kun."

    "Okay," Ranma said quietly. "Here's my bid. If you don't
tell anyone, then maybe I won't break BOTH YOUR ARMS!" Her tone
rose until she was screaming in Nabiki's face.

    Nabiki shrank back, startled by both the intensity and
fury in Ranma's expression and the tears rolling down her cheeks.

    "Okay! Okay... Geez, Ranma," Nabiki said, cringing in
genuine fear. "Calm down--"

    "WHY THE HELL DOES EVERYONE KEEP TELLING ME TO CALM
DOWN!?!?" Ranma screamed, whirling on her family. "I'M CALM!
CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I'M CALM?! I'M DANDEE-FUCKING-RIFFIC!!!!"

    Bawling, she ran away from the stunned group and up the
stairs. She slammed her door behind her and collapsed onto her
futon to cry.

* * *

    Thankfully, everyone seemed content to leave her alone
for the next several hours. Even Kasumi, who knocked at the door
to let Ranma know that some dinner had been saved for her, stayed
well away.

    It felt good to be left alone. It gave Ranma time to be
with her thoughts and try to figure out her feelings. She
wondered why Akane was so combative. She wondered why Nabiki was
so provocative.

    She pondered Nabiki's reaction to her threat. It had been
odd, but seeing the girl back down and cringe away from her had
sent a chill down Ranma's spine. It was thrilling to frighten
Nabiki, but after a few seconds, Ranma decided that she didn't
like the thrill it gave her. She would much rather... what? Hug?
Kiss? Fondle?

    She could almost feel Nabiki's legs intertwined with her
own. She imagined what it would feel like to kiss Nabiki and to
suck on her neck. For a brief moment, Ranma allowed herself to
think about nursing at Nabiki's round, firm breasts, licking her
nipples and tweaking them with her teeth.

    Ranma's knees began to clench together, and the redhead
felt her body begin to writhe as her arousal increased.

    "Gotta think about something else," she said out loud.
The desire didn't really leave her.

    Telling herself that she was doing it to take her mind
off of Nabiki's feminine flesh, Ranma reached over and pulled the
hentai books out of her satchel.

    Ranma had little hope for the first one, 'Lovely Tentacle
Warrior Force Sexy'. Indeed, the first page displayed a full-page
splash of a young woman being violently sodomized by an octopus-
like monster. Ranma threw the book back in her bag in nauseation.
The second magazine, 'Lunatic Paradise 9', seemed a bit more tame
and interesting, if only slightly more cerebral.

    Ranma read the first story in the book with trembling
hands. Her legs were clenched tightly together the entire time.
The story was about Tuxedo Kamen's seduction of each of the
Sailor Senshi in turn. The art was interesting, but unrealistic.
All the girls had impossibly huge breasts that swung underneath
them like udders and Tuxedo Kamen penetrated them with a member
the size of a baseball bat.

    The second story in the book was quite a bit better drawn
and even more exciting. It was about Sailor Mercury, who asked
Uranus and Neptune about their lesbian relationship. The two
older girls took the younger to an exclusive club, where she
witnessed people stripping and having sex on stage. Eventually,
Uranus and Neptune took Mercury to a back room where they
stripped her clothes off. Uranus penetrated her with a long,
phallic vibrator, while Neptune kneaded Mercury's breasts.

    By the time Ranma finished reading, she was shaking so
badly she could barely hold the manga. She curled up into a fetal
ball and listened to her teeth chatter while she waited for the
sensations to lessen.

    After a few minutes, she unclenched enough to pull the
Utena doujinshi out of her bag.

    The story was very simple. Utena was bound and gagged in
her dorm room, while Anthy stood over her with a whip. Utena was
forced to obey Anthy's commands, or risk being flogged. The dark-
skinned girl forced Utena to suck on her toes, and then her
breasts. Then Anthy spread her legs and made Utena lick her.

    Ranma stared at the stylized images in an odd mix of
horror and fascination. Was this real? People could have sex like
that?

    Page after page, Utena and Anthy indulged in increasingly
perverted acts. The climax of the story found Utena naked and
spread-eagled in front of the other duelists. They watched while
Utena stroked her own vulva, screaming out Anthy's name all the
while.

    Ranma closed the book, and returned to her fetal
position. She lay in silence for several minutes.

     The term, if she remembered correctly from Kasumi's
medical book, was 'masturbation'. Self-stimuation. Autoerotica.

    An image of Utena, forced to give her self pleasure lest
she taste the sting of Anthy's whip, burned its way into Ranma's
mind. She knew that she would never be able to look at her Shoujo
Kakumei Utena tankoubans in quite the same light.

    Could anyone do that? Was it that simple? You just
rubbed... there?

    Was that all there was to it?

* * *

    "The boy has been very moody lately," Genma noted with
some bitterness. "That scene this afternoon was disgraceful."

    "Hmmph!" Akane snorted.

    Nabiki was silent, but had a thoughtful expression on her
face.

    "Why, I should go up there right now and beat some sense
into the boy!" Genma said. "We should leave on a training trip
right away."

    "You'll do no such thing, husband!" Nodoka warned.

    "Maybe we should leave Ranma alone, Saotome-kun," Soun
suggested. "I'm certain he'll straighten out after he's fully
recovered from his surgery."

    "I'll straighten him out," Genma said in a low, dangerous
tone.

    "Oh, you can't do that, Uncle Saotome," Kasumi said.

    "Oh no?" Genma asked in a challenging voice. "Why not?
Who's going to stop me?"

    "Tofuu-sensei and Najima-sensei have both left very
strict orders. I'm afraid I'm not allowed to feed anyone who
makes Ranma violate her doctors' orders."

    Genma paled, and his stomach rumbled angrily. "Maybe I'll
beat some sense into him later," the man conceded.

    Kasumi smiled and put a tray of cookies down on the
table. Genma took a double-handful and began to stuff his face.

* * *

    After...

    Ranma lay on her futon. She was exhausted. Spent.

    She lay in only her shirt. Her pants had been discarded
some time earlier. Her hair was slightly mussed, and her hands
were quite sticky. She held them out at her sides, wondering
about the best way to get to the restroom so she could wash them.

    She felt dazed, and more than a little drained. She felt
slightly guilty and empty. She felt like a warm, surreal glow had
surrounded her body.

    She felt tired and worried that someone would walk in on
her before she managed to put her pants back on.

    More than anything else, she felt at peace.

    Ranma had read a phrase before, but know she knew what it
meant. Ranma had 'died a little death'.

    Curiously, the urge to sleep became overwhelming.
Deciding not to worry about washing her hands or putting her
pants back on, Ranma pulled the covers up over her body and
turned on her side. Breathing in her own dark, musky scent, Ranma
drifted off to sleep.

* * *

    Ranma woke. She was wearing a long, flowing dress, and
was walking through the rooms of an elegant mansion.

    "Ranma, this way," Utena said, gesturing from one of the
corridors.

    Ranma nodded and followed the pink-haired girl. Utena led
Ranma from the mansion and into a large courtyard. The two
stopped to look at the monkeys frolicking in their cage near a
decorative fountain.

    Eventually the two came to a tall, foreboding building
that looked vaguely like the dojo.

    "In here?" Ranma asked.

    "Yes." Utena answered.

    "But why?" Ranma asked.

    "This is where you must choose," a new voice said .

    Utena bowed her head. Anthy appeared out of the shadows
behind her. For the first time, Ranma realized that the pink-
haired girl was wrapped in thorny vines. Just like in the
doujinshi she read, Anthy was clad in a leather bustier and
carried a cruel whip.

    "Inside, you must choose the one who will punish you,"
Anthy said, sliding the dojo door open.

    Ranma stepped inside.

    She jumped in shock when she saw all the people inside,
but allowed Utena and Anthy to lead her in.

    To the far right of the group was Mousse. He was carrying
the dagger he used to stab Ryouga as well as an assortment of
chains and cruel-looking hooks. Ryouga was next to him, unarmed
if you didn't count his rock-crushing fists. Both young men were
stripped to the waist, their muscular chests bared.

    Tofuu-sensei was next, and he was carrying a wide
selection of moxibustion and acupuncture equipment. Hiroshi and
Daisuke were on the other side of the dojo, carrying all sorts of
sticky, sloppy foodstuffs. Soun stood next to them in his antique
armor.

    Directly across from Ranma on the back wall of the dojo,
Genma stood, carrying only a few short lengths of rope. The
sunlight glinted off of his glasses.

    "Choose," Anthy commanded, laying her slender hand on
Ranma's shoulder.

    Slowly, deliberately, Ranma walked in between all those
assembled in the dojo. She stepped close to her father, and
wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace.

    "Is he your choice?" Utena asked from the doorway.

    "No," Ranma said. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed the
large man on the cheek. He nodded, and stepped away.

    "You must choose," Anthy instructed her. "If not him,
then who?"

    "Makuna-sensei said that I didn't have to choose a man if
I didn't want to," Ranma explained. She gestured to the door that
Genma had been standing in front of, and slid it open.

    Both Utena and Anthy's eyes widened in surprise.

    "You will make your choice in there?" Anthy asked.

    Ranma nodded, stepping through the doorway.

    "Who will you choose, Ranma?"

    "They're all wonderful," Ranma said. "But to start with,
I choose... you..."

* * *

    Nabiki looked up from a magazine and sneezed.

    "Geez. I hope I didn't wake anyone up."

-----

~to be continued...
* * *
C. Jones - guilty@furinkan.net
http://www.furinkan.net


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