Chapter Text
Even with the rather unique way they were introduced, nothing was going to stop Akane Tendo from making something positive out of this stranger waltzing into her dojo. Sure, who knows how either of their fathers expected an arranged marriage to work, when they both only had girls - though of course, her father did mention this agreement was established before her or her sisters were born.
Still, this also applied to their mysterious new guest. Given that she was apparently coming from China, from what the poorly written postcard read, this was a golden opportunity to make a friend who would treat her like an equal! Someone who would help her improve in the art, instead of just treating her like some object to win! A true rival! Someone she needed to test her skills against as soon as possible, get a grip on how exactly they can practice and get better together.
“So, do you know any kenpo?”
“...A little?”
Better than nothing, Akane supposed. Pushing forward with as much confidence she could muster, “Let's have a short match, then? Just for fun.”
“If you say so. Dunno what else I should be doing here at this point…” The guest, unsurprisingly, seems really unsure of herself, if her slowly quieting voice the further she mumbled on was anything to go by.
Her soon-to-be-rival hadn’t adopted a proper stance, just holding her hands behind her back. So, Akane made the first move, running towards her with a loud “SEI!”, and a punch that would’ve taken down anyone from the horde she fought almost daily... but the intended target almost teleported out of the way at the last second. Following up with a kick, another punch, pushing the redhead further and further in the room, not a single hit connected. Almost more like a dance than a spar; the only reason it still resembled a fight was the growing frustration within Akane, seeing just how skilled this newcomer is compared to her.
“Come on! Swing at me!” Akane shouted, before throwing another kick, only for her partner to duck and move further back, now against the wall. Summoning all her strength, all the frustration she's feeling, Akane pushed everything she could into one powerful punch right to the chest.
And the girl dodged this one too. Akane’s fist went straight through the dojo wall, as her sparring partner jumped, no, flipped over her entirely, and poked her on the back of the head. And after all of that, she started laughing.
All her anger, all her frustration, vanished in that moment. It was like the girl’s laugh was healing her wounded, deflated pride. Eventually, Akane joined in, letting all her emotions and feelings wash over her as she laughed and finally really looked at their guest. Sure, they were introduced earlier when she burst in shouting, carried by a panda of all things. But that was when Akane was still upset at the engagement and in awe by having another girl who could be as interested in martial arts as she was. But now, seeing her, really seeing her, relaxed and calm and having fun, laughing, in her element.
She’s really pretty… Akane thought, before quickly ignoring it and moving on to something far more important than how objectively attractive their guest is. How objectively skilled she is seemed a lot more important. Yes. That's what she needs to focus on.
“I know you went on a journey to improve your martial arts, but I didn’t realize you’d be that good! How’d you learn to move that quickly?”
The question seemed to knock the relaxed energy out of the redhead, almost as if she realized she’d let her guard down for a moment. “Well… the Saotome school focuses a lot on dodging and aerial attacks, so I just kinda had ta get good enough ta keep up with tha Old Man.”
Akane, stars in her eyes, kept pushing to get this girl to open up about her skills a bit more, almost entirely unable to hide how excited she is, “Do you think you could show me some katas or help spar more too, if you’re staying in Nerima for a while? I’d hoped we could maybe be rivals, and with your skill and all the different styles I’m sure you learned about in China, it’d be really fun to see everything you can do!”
The girl seemed to shrink more in on herself, almost like she’s scared to talk more. “I can show you what I do remember, but I wouldn’t be a good teacher. A lotta stuff up until a few weeks ago just kinda… blurs together. Same with whatever technique I took from whatever style. It's all just kinda, Anything Goes at this point, ta me.”
Akane frowned a bit at that, but didn’t let up her attack. “Well, maybe practicing more with me could help jog your memory a bit? I’m sure even if you don’t know exactly where a move is from, it’d be fun just getting to spar with you like this again, it’ll help us both improve!”
Almost as if her personality flipped on a dime, a cocky smirk soon grew across the guests face. “Well, it’ll take ya a bit to catch up to my skill, and ya telegraph your moves a bit much. Still… it’d be nice havin’ a rival again. I think I used ta have one, but I can’t tell ya how long it’s been since I really trained with anyone but my pops.”
“Well, now you’ve got me here, so long as you and your father manage to stay in the area. Maybe we could just hang out sometime too, get to be better friends and training partners!”
The redhead resumed trying to make herself as small as possible, confidence fading quickly, as if each word Akane said was something she wasn’t used to. Like she hadn’t ever had someone just, be kind like this to her. There was definitely something off about this girl. Only training with her father for who knows how long, the memory problems, the ways her personality seems to change on a dime… there’s something wrong, but the pieces weren’t all connecting yet. Something important was missing, but it might be a good idea to give this all a rest, for now. They only just met, they’d surely have a lot more time to talk once the girl’s father finally arrived.
“Well, I’m gonna go take a bath, I need to relax a bit after that workout. It was really fun to spar though!”
Walking over to the door to the dojo, Akane looked back at the girl, who had started following her out. Before Akane broke away to head to the furo, she let out one last thing she’d meant to say much earlier in their conversation.
“Oh, and I meant to say this earlier, but. I’m really glad you’re a girl, Ranma.”
Something in Ranma seemed to break, hearing that. Akane barely noticed it before the other girl was splashed with hot tea by a man in glasses she’d never seen before.
Suddenly, right where her new friend was standing, someone else. Appeared. In the same clothes Ranma had worn, but now filled out much more - leaner, lankier,, but still muscular. Much taller, too. The red hair darkened to a black color, that framed their sharper seeming face in a very different way. Though the style and braid at the back seemed exactly the same. Finally, Akane pieced it together: This person was very noticeably a -
"BOY! What did you think you were doing, staying in that despicable form for so long!?"
This whole scheme was stupid from the start, Ranma thought. Really, who in their right mind would be willing to put up with an arranged marriage in the 80s, let alone to a man who turned into a woman? Even with Pops making sure the whole house knew about his curse as soon as he could, it still didn’t change all the other problems that he caused in the first place! How could he force them to leave China so quickly, when Ranma, man-amongst-men, was forced to turn into a woman! It's almost like what was probably years of bashing how manly he had to be into his head was for nothing!
It was a late, warm night, with Ranma, back in his cursed form, sitting on the roof of the Tendo household, just above the room he’d be staying in. Stars and lights dotted the sky, but nothing could really compare to the view he got back in nature, anywhere camping with pops. If there was one thing he'd make sure he could always remember, it’d be the view he saw the night he first got cursed, with how brilliantly the stars shined, how colorful the area looked drenched in moonlight that far in the wilderness. It was peaceful, being that far away from anyone but themselves, the Jusenkyo guide, and his kid… whatever her name was, Ranma couldn’t remember.
How long has it been since I’ve been around people other than Pops for more than a few days? His thoughts wandered to the people he’d met traveling through China, though so much of it was hazy and unclear that he could barely remember people’s names and faces. And nothing from before the trip would even begin to come to mind. How long had it really been since he even had a friend?
Shampoo was an exception, though. Not a friend, not a rival, but always around, always on their tail. It felt like they could hardly get a chance to move around or breathe with her chasing after them, after Pops decided to hike back to Japan to visit the Tendos. If only they hadn’t stopped at that village along the way, he could’ve avoided that stupid Kiss of Death entirely. Though that’d mean he wouldn't have the only connection with someone seemingly around his age that he’d had in what might’ve been years. If only she wasn’t trying to kill me, maybe we could’ve been friends…
Maybe he could still be friends with Akane? Sure, the whole engagement probably fucked that hope up, and being a boy made it even worse. But she had been so kind to him when they first met! Sure, Ranma was a man, the manliest man even, but maybe if Akane still wanted to spar and train with him, they could actually be friends, talk the way they did when he first showed up?
It's not like I'm all that interested in being her friend, though, he thought while putting his hand over the spot on his head Akane hit with a table when he brought up how his girl form was built better than her. It wasn’t even meant to be mocking, but she got so upset at him over it!
She’s so uncute… but maybe it just seemed like an insult because of the engagement. Pops really had to shove some engagement bullshit down his throat after knowing these people for less than a day, huh? Not like that could mess up any attempt to get to actually know someone else his age, or maybe find a rival after…
After…
There’s someone he's trying to think of. Someone who’d been dancing around the edges of his consciousness, barely not present, but still noticeably there. Was he a rival? Was he a friend? Was he a he? Ranma couldn’t remember, at most getting that he was probably someone he met during his last years in a school, before they suddenly left for China. Probably. Maybe he knew the guy when he was younger, though. It’s always a possibility. Not like he could remember much of anything before Jusenkyo these days.
I should probably stop thinking about whoever this guy was… Ranma’s headache got worse and worse the more he thought about whoever they were to him, distracting him completely from the voice that had started calling up to him from the house.
“Ranma, are you still sitting up there? The furo’s available for you when you get down!” Kasumi shouted over to him. Somehow, even when she was clearly raising her voice, she still had this calm, relaxed, quiet tone.
“Thanks for letting me know, Kasumi!” Ranma shouted back, much louder than her, as he jumped down from the roof and landed in front of her.
“Of course, Ranma. I also wanted to say, please don’t think too poorly of Akane. She’s a very sweet girl, but also can be a bit of an angry, violent maniac.”
“That makes… a lotta sense, thank ya for the warning, Kasumi.” He really couldn’t understand saying something like that about a sibling, but at least she was trying to look out for the both of them a bit.
Not like he’d understand anything about having siblings, anyways, being an only child.
Though her comment did get him thinking about Akane more as he walked back into the house and towards the bathroom. How kind she’d been to him in his girl form. If he stayed in his girl form more, would she wanna be his friend more?... Nah, that’d be dishonest and shitty of him. Maybe he could use his girl form when practicing and sparring with Akane? They’d have similar reach then, maybe it’d be easy to train her that way. Of course, this was all assuming Akane even wanted to spar with him more, after realizing he’s a boy, and the sheer rage she held for him because of it.
“So much for that friendship, I guess…” The red haired girl threw his clothes off idly once he reached the room, still stuck in his own mind, without even realizing someone else’s clothes were already there. Before he could get more lost in his own head, he walked to the door to the bath proper. Which very suddenly opened, to reveal
Akane, wrapped in a towel, exiting the furo. Both stood still for a moment, as if time had stood still.
“OH! Uhm. uh. Hi?” Ranma stuttered, shocked out of his own head, while Akane glowered and muttered something under her breath.
“You… you PERVERT!” She shouted, before slapping Ranma across the face.
So much for friendship, Akane thought, as she rushed out of the bathroom with her clothes in hand.