DISCLAIMER: "Ranma ½" and all the characters therein belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. This is a fan fiction produced for my own enjoyment and for passing on without profit. Other characters that come into play in this fanfict may or may not be pulled from other sources (including other fanficts, R.P.G.s, manga, anime, literature, or possibly even *GASP* American comic books!). As far as I know, the character, Ryo/Ryo-chan/Ryoko, is my own idea.

A WORD FROM TANGENT: Lord Talon has informed me that I cannot have my stories posted in their original document form (WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!). Since my computer translates documents straight to ‘Notepad’, I will continue writing these stories with Word 97 and copy them into ‘Notepad’ for general posting. Anyone interested enough to want to see my stories in their original format may try to contact me once I’m on the net (I use Tempus Sans ITC in bold for headers and chapter titles, and Times New Roman for general text). Or you could try to ‘Save As Document’ I suppose…

Ryo-chan was having a bad day. It started in the morning when she woke up from a really disturbing dream to discover that she had become ‘moist’ in the nether regions. She looked over at Nabiki and suppressed a shudder. Ryo-chan didn’t usually remember her dreams, but this one left fragments wandering around her conscious mind before fading away. She vaguely recalled having sex in the dream (not at all unusual for a teenage male to dream about), and seemed to remember enjoying it. Unfortunately, she recalled that she was having sex as a female in the dream, with Nabiki and Akane in the male roles! Whether she enjoyed the dream at the time was irrelevant in Ryo-chan’s mind. It was making her sick to her stomach now, as she remembered it! She ran off to the toilet to throw up, but only produced dry heaves.

Nabiki just wondered what that was all about, and continued to get dressed.

Giving up on trying to puke her guts out, Ryo-chan went to the furo to clean up. Once she was done though, she realized that she had neglected to attend morning practice with her brother and father, and felt worse. She practically lived for those sessions ever since Jusenkyo, as practicing the art of the Anything Goes School was one of the few things she had left of her self-image. This was just horrible! She started to cry uncontrollably, collapsing to her knees and sobbing into her hands.

In the bustle of the early morning, no one noticed that Ryo-chan was absent (Genma and Ranma were purposely trying to exclude her from their training now that there were other people to look after her – this would come back to cause trouble later). Breakfast was served, and nearly everyone had gathered before they noticed that Ryo-chan wasn’t there. In the brief moment of silence before anyone asked where she was, they finally heard her muted sobbing coming from the furo. As a whole, the group went to investigate.

"What should we do?" asked Ranma worriedly. He didn’t want to barge in on his ‘sister’ in the bath, but he desperately wanted to comfort her and find out what was wrong.

"Oh the shame of it!" cried out Genma. "That one of my sons would be crying like a girl!" Ranma and Akane promptly hit Genma over the head. "Ite."

"And whose fault is it that she’s a girl?" demanded an irate Ranma.

"She’s having a hard time, and needs our emotional support." Akane berated Genma. "What kind of parent are you?"

Kasumi and Soun found themselves trying to defuse what could turn into a reckless brawl rather than attempting to see what was wrong with Ryo-chan. While Ranma and Akane still didn’t like being engaged against their wills, and still sniped at eachother verbally from time to time, they had united in attacking what they perceived to be the true cause of their problem whenever an opportunity presented itself. Thus Genma found himself to be the focus of a lot of hostility and criticism from the pair. On the bright side, this kept their arguing between eachother down to reasonable levels (no true hard feelings intended, and they usually apologized afterwards).

Nabiki found herself torn between the desire to go in and offer a shoulder to cry on, or keeping up her unaffected poise and finishing breakfast. For now, her mercenary nature won out, but she was beginning to feel bad about herself (although she steadfastly refused to admit to herself that she was beginning to care again).

By the time she gathered herself together, Ryo-chan found that she had missed breakfast as well, and only had time to hurriedly get dressed before leaving for school. Halfway there, she realized that she had forgotten to grab her lunch, and had neglected to bring any money with which to buy one. This promised to be a hungry day.

The crowd of boys that attacked Akane every morning was plowed over faster than usual as Ryo-chan aided Akane. She had done so primarily to work out her own frustrations, but Akane was mad at her again (this time for interfering without being asked to do so). Kuno was impressed with the beauty of their attacks, even the snap-kick that Ryo-chan knocked him out with on her way past him.

Ryo-chan found herself holding buckets in the hall during most of her classes, but not for being late, nor for not wearing a uniform (she was on time and was wearing the school uniform). She ended up pulling bucket duty because she kept forgetting that she was wearing a skirt once class was underway. As soon as she did, she would unconsciously draw her legs up onto the chair and cross them Indian style. Since she had been warned about not doing this yesterday, she was probably lucky that she didn’t get detention. But she was still stuck in the hall holding buckets during most of her classes.

Ryo-chan ended up wishing that she had pulled bucket duty during gym. Oh, it started well enough. Changing into her gym clothes was less nerve-wracking than it had been yesterday, since she was pretty sure that Akane wasn’t going to clobber her now. She gave up on the sports bra as a lost cause after sending it across the locker room for the fifth time while trying to put it on. Nobody said anything about it though. Some of them remembered doing the same thing when they were learning how to wear a bra, although ‘Ryoko’ seemed to be able to get extra distance for some reason.

The girls were playing softball today, and she was managing to loose herself in the game and forget the day’s worries. That is, until she had hit that wild foul that went straight to where her brother, Ranma, had been sitting talking with some of his own classmates. The ball hit him in the side of his face with enough force to knock him over and leave a mark.

"Oh no!" cried Ryo-chan as she ran over to her brother, forgetting the game in her concern. "I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry! Are you okay? Did I hit you too hard? It was an accident! I didn’t mean to! WAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

"Ah…err…oh man, Ryo-chan! Don’t cry! The ball didn’t hit me that hard!" said Ranma, trying to comfort his distraught ‘sister’ (and trying to ignore the pain as his cheek swelled from the bruise).

"WAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!" Ryo-chan continued sobbing. It took pretty much the rest of the period to calm her down again. She was still upset enough by the time she was in the showers, that she barely even noticed the abundance of nude kawai girls who were still trying to comfort her (including Akane)!

Home Economics was a personal disaster for Ryo-chan. The teacher, seeing how upset ‘Ryoko’ already was, decided to give the poor girl a break from knitting. She thought that perhaps the new girl would be better at another skill…like sewing. Ryo-chan had jumped at the chance to prove herself and to prove her brother wrong. Unfortunately for her, Ranma had hit the nail on the head when he made those comments about her sewing skills yesterday.

Ryo-chan, while she did indeed have as deft a hand at sewing as she had claimed (nice, neat, sturdy stitches), was unusually prone toward accidentally attaching unrelated items to whatever she was working on. Her projects, big or small, hand sewn or machine sewn, had all ended up attached to unrelated items. And since the stitches were so sturdy, trying to separate these unintended inclusions tended to destroy either her project or the items in question.

By the time class was over, her skirt and blouse were riddled with small rips and tears. She had even had to strip down to her socks once, because she had inadvertently sewn through several layers of fabric and attached every other piece of clothing she was wearing to her project. The teacher had taken her into a back room with Akane to try and help her remove the stitches without causing any more damage or embarrassment, but Ryo-chan was till embarrassed to have to try to cut the stitches while wearing only her socks. Exactly how she had joined everything at the crotch without sticking herself was beyond any of them, but ‘Ryoko’ had done exactly that. Unfortunately, they were not able to save her panties, so she went without them for the rest of the school day.

Fortunately, after this, the fact that she was wearing a skirt was well hammered into her head, and she didn’t try to cross her legs for the rest of the school day. Unfortunately, rumor had gotten out about how she had lost her panties, so a lot of boys spent time trying to sneak a peek up her skirt. The sounds of thumping that followed Ryo-chan were either boys feinting from hormonal overload after successful peeks, or boys being clobbered by Ryo-chan (and/or other girls) when they were caught. Despite this, there were many happy boys.

After school, Kuno had tried to challenge Ranma again, but Ryo-chan clocked him on the grounds that she was taking her brother straight to Dr. Tofu’s clinic to get his bruise checked out. Kuno grabbed wildly for support as he fell, but whatever he had grabbed had torn away from its support, so he hit the ground anyway.

Ryo-chan spent a moment in shock. There was Kuno, on the ground, holding the tattered remains of her school uniform. The rips and tears that her clothes had received during her failed attempts at sewing had weakened the fabric considerably. She was now wearing only her socks and shoes, while Kuno was staring up at her from where he lay. She was NAKED out in the street, where everyone could see her! She was embarrassed! She was humiliated! She was…she was…LIVID!

Kuno only had a brief moment to marvel at the splendor of his pigtailed goddess’s nude body before she started to pummel him into unconsciousness. [Such beauty!] Truth to tell, he barely felt the beating that he was receiving from the furious Ryo-chan, such was the distraction of her nubile form graced only by the air around her! He was in a state of bliss when he finally passed out from the repeated blows she was inflicting on him.

Ranma handed over his uniform shirt and jacket to his ‘sister’ when she got up off of Kuno (causing more that a few girls to sigh in admiration of his bare torso – and several boys to sigh in disappointment at ‘Ryoko’ covering up again). She put on the shirt and wrapped the jacket around her waist, and then ran all the way back to the Tendo’s, crying tears of humiliation. Ranma and Akane kept pace, leaving Nabiki behind.

While Nabiki wasn’t out of shape, she knew she was still nowhere even close to being able to keep pace with her sister or the Saotome twins, so she didn’t even try. She just stepped on the prone body of Kuno and continued on her way. [Ryo-chan will probably be happy for the chance to pound on Kuno again. I’d better make sure she gets the challenge letter that Kuno wrote for her.] Kuno had given her the letter to give to ‘Ryoko’ earlier in the day, and she had been about to do so when Kuno had challenged Ranma again. She assumed that it was a challenge letter because Kuno was a sore looser and probably wanted revenge for his honor or something like that.

Nabiki was rarely wrong, but this time she was very mistaken!

Akane, in an attempt to cheer Ryo-chan up, had talked the neo-girl into trying on some makeup and a pretty sun dress. Although Ryo-chan wouldn’t have ordinarily done anything of the sort, she had been having an awful day and was willing to give anything a shot. Surprisingly, she really was feeling a bit better when Akane was done applying the makeover, and actually went downstairs with Akane to show off the new look. The Tendos made nice comments, even Nabiki (who had just come in the door). Ranma was stunned to see his ‘sister’ wearing makeup and a pretty dress but she did look good, and knowing how rough a day she had been having, just nodded in agreement with the Tendos. And Genma…

Genma yelled at Ryo-chan for putting on makeup, a pretty dress, and generally acting like a girl. As Ryo-chan broke down in tears once again, Soun was about to banish his friend from the house for the evening. He didn’t have to. Genma was already running through the neighborhood like a scared rabbit with Ranma and Akane hot on his heels.

Nabiki thought that this would be a good time to give Ryo-chan the letter from Kuno.

Ryo-chan was grateful to have another chance at pounding Kuno! The letter had said to come alone to meet him in the second field of Furinkan High School at six in the evening. She wore one of the Chinese fighting outfits she had purchased in inspiration from Xian Pu’s fighting attire. It was sturdy, wouldn’t rip or tear easily, and looked good on her. She did some light katas to stretch her muscles before Kuno arrived.

Ryo-chan was beginning to wonder if he was actually going to show up, or if he had decided that he had had enough when she had pounded on him earlier, when she heard his characteristic poorly quoted poetry approaching.

"The time is now six forty-five precisely, the moment when the sunset is at its most beautiful," Kuno stated in what he considered a romantic tone. It may well have indeed been a romantic tone, but ‘Ryoko’ didn’t pick up the inference yet.

"Whatever you say," said a somewhat irritated Ryo-chan. She just wondered what the sunset had to do with anything. Besides, she would have picked a different time and place to try to catch the sunset at its most beautiful. Living on the road had allowed her to see many sunsets from many different vantagepoints. "So, where’s your boken?"

"I will not need it."

"Pretty confident, aren’t you?"

"Confident enough," said Kuno, reaching behind his back, "to give you this!" With that, he whipped an object at Ryo-chan, who caught it. It was a bouquet of roses. Ryo-chan started to have a really bad feeling about the direction this encounter was going.

"It is I, the rising star of the kendo club who stands before you now. Often called the ‘Blue Thunder’ of Furinkan High. Tatewaki Kuno, age seventeen." Ryo-chan had heard all this yesterday morning of course, but in less romantic tones. She really didn’t like where this was going! "I love you, Ryoko Saotome. I would date with you."

Ryo-chan sat down, stunned, as Kuno wandered away. As the wind blew through her hair picturesquely, and the sunset continued in all of its beautiful glory, she just sat there in silence, holding the roses he had given her. After a while, with Kuno long gone, she got up, discarded the roses, and started for home herself.

Genma arrived at home much later, using a stick as a kind of crutch and looking like he had been beaten rather badly. Ranma and Akane just looked up from where they had been sharing some tea in front of the television and glared at him. Saying nothing, he hung his head and headed for the furo. Alone once more, Ranma and Akane went back to talking about the finer points of the combat techniques that they had used on Mr. Saotome earlier, with Ranma paying particular attention to Akane’s discussion on the use and application of mallets and other blunt objects.

Ryo-chan arrived shortly thereafter, looking even more depressed than before.

After finishing her piled up schoolwork that evening, Ryo-chan took a bath and then turned in early. She had more disturbing dreams again, more like nightmares really, where she was once again having sex as a female. What made it infinitely worse was the fact that the male role wasn’t filled by anyone she even liked. It was Kuno, saying the words "I love you. I would date with you," all night long.

Ryo-chan woke up in the morning with a sheen of sweat; feeling nauseous and somewhat bloated. She rushed straight for the toilet, taking care of the bloated feeling first. It was with some shock that she realized that she had just let loose a lot of blood. She was menstruating, just as Dr. Tofu and the Tendo sisters had warned her she would. In the back of her mind, she had not believed them. She wasn’t a real girl, so why would she even have a period? But here…here was incontrovertible proof that she was indeed a true girl in every important detail. Her self-image took another massive blow, and she started to dry heave again.

When she was done unsuccessfully trying to puke her guts out for the second morning in a row, Ryo-chan got up. She drew in a big breath of air…and screamed. A primal, gut-wrenching, ear-piercing scream that could be heard throughout the house. "MY LIFE IS HELL!"

The rest of the household, hearing that, decided that it would be a good idea if Ryo-chan stayed home that day.

END CHAPTER FOUR

With special thanks to Lord Talon, for suggesting that Kuno be included. On the other hand, he didn’t like the other bit of nonsense that had originally been here in the omake section (Ryo-chan actually accepting a date with Kuno), so I guess it evens out. To keep himself on the plus side, he further suggested the final punch line for Nabiki.

Genma was hiding from Ranma and Akane again. Once again he had said something derogatory towards his ‘daughter’, Ryo-chan, making her break down in tears once more. The two were on the warpath, hunting him down in order to pummel him severely. Akane with her mighty ‘Mallet O Doom’ ™, and Ranma with just his fists and feet. Nabiki found him hiding behind a bush.

"For five-hundred-yen, I’ll make sure Ranma and Akane don’t beat you up this time," Nabiki offered the terrified man.

"S…sold!" replied a grateful Genma, handing over a five-hundred-yen bill. A brief moment of intense pain later, he found himself at the bottom of an impact crater. "I…ite."

"There, now they don’t have to!" commented Nabiki, lifting up Akane’s old ‘Mallet O Great Pain & Impact’™ (Akane had given it up for her new one because she wanted to cut down on the collateral damage – besides, ‘Mallet O Doom’™ just rolled off the tongue better). "Okay Kasumi, it’s your turn," Nabiki said as she handed over the mallet. Behind Kasumi stood Soun, Dr. Tofu and Ryo-chan herself, who were patiently waiting for their turns as well. Not to mention Tatewaki Kuno, who had heard that his pigtailed goddess had been slandered, and had paid handsomely to be included in the line of people here to pound on Genma.

"For ten-thousand-yen, I wont do this next time," Nabiki offered cheerfully.

"C…could you…put it…on my…tab?" Genma pleaded desperately.

"No, sorry, cash only!" With that final comment, Nabiki stepped out of the way to let Kasumi mallet away to her hearts content…

END