[Episode 107547] [Episode 107547]For one thing, Ranma was doing his best to find room 1F, Ukyo's hand in his own. The school didn't have a very simple layout, at least not that Ranma could see. On the first floor, he'd seen rooms with the number designation 1, 3, 4, 6, and 8, and he'd seen the letters B, C, E, F, and Q. The other floors seemed to be equally random, and he hadn't been able to see a pattern in terms of halls, and the building was big enough that the random approach wasn't working that well. On top of that, most of the rooms weren't actually marked, so he had to interrupt teachers to ask, "Is this room 1F?" And, in the case of empty rooms, this meant that Ranma had no idea. So, if he actually managed to find his room, and he was early enough not to be late, that might mean that no one was in the room, and Ranma wouldn't even know it.
Also, Ukyo was talking to him about trivial stuff, asking about what foods he liked, where he'd traveled, where he lived now, the people at the Tendo household. Formulating answers was taking a large section of Ranma's mind, because this girl was asking him stuff just out of the blue, about almost anything, and he kept having to remember not to mention anything about sex, as Akane wouldn't appreciate that, he was sure. Ukyo learned the basics of Ranma's life in the hall (father, Genma, Mother, Nodoka, cursed, training trip for over a decade, man among men, Tendo household, Akane, Kasumi, Nabiki, Kimiko, Soun, the Art, Genma's an idiot, loves food, especially pork buns and Japanese pizza, thinks manga is a little boring and TV is mostly confusing), and Ukyo gave him a little bit in return (hates Japanese pizza, father is an idiot, hates Japanese pizza because of father, interested in the Art because of childhood friend, training, school, not much else, moved here to make a fresh start).
On top of that, a significant part of Ranma's brain was trying to figure out what had happened earlier, when he'd let Ukyo lead for a few minutes. Ranma knew it was impossible, without anything resembling a question, that what had happened, had... happened.
A few minutes ago...
Ukyo had been walking ahead of Ranma, and he had been doing his best not to glance down, finding it hard not to once he realized that Ukyo didn't have any panties on, when she had turned a corner. It hadn't been a special corner, as far as Ranma had seen. It was just a T-intersection, and Ukyo had taken a right, after glancing the other way. Ranma had walked up, behind her... He was convinced that he'd only lost sight of her for a second as she turned the corner. He'd played that part of it over in his mind a dozen times, and he was sure it hadn't even been a full second. When he turned the corner, Ukyo just... wasn't there. The nearest door was over 10 meters away, and even Ranma didn't think he could run to it, from a standing start, in less than a second. On top of that, as Ranma peered, dumbstruck, around the corner, Ukyo's voiced piped up... from behind him.
"Ran-cha..." Ukyo stopped herself, midway through her sentence, remembering that she really wasn't supposed to be calling Ranma that. He'd already looked at her with a look that made her think he wasn't that far from remembering her, so she had to be more careful. Still, she'd been shocked to turn a corner, realize that Ranma wasn't behind her, and see Ranma in front of her, all of a sudden.
"Ranma!"
Ranma turned, and was once again startled. Ukyo, only three, maybe four second after turning the corner, was almost 100 meters behind him. Even if she had found a secret entrance and hadn't had to open or close any doors, that still seemed impossible to Ranma, especially from a walking start and in a sailor fuku (without panties, he noted). It took the two of them almost four seconds to cover the ground, together, both of them running toward the other, Ranma noted, and he, at least, hadn't held anything back. On top of that, it had made lots of noise, and Ukyo was a tiny bit out of breath after the run.
Ranma couldn't help but flood the poor, confused girl with questions, not even noticing the slight blush from her as she did her best to re-cover her private areas with the skirt, the run having slightly disturbed them.
"How did you do that Yuriko? I've never seen anyone move that, that -fast-!"
Ranma couldn't help but think of how amazing it would be to be that fast in a fight.
Ukyo, for her part, responded honestly.
"I, uhh, I guess I don't really know. I just turned the corner, and then, you weren't there anymore, and I was at the start of this hall again. I recognize it because that one locker with the punch-dents in it was in the same place both times I... uhh, walked through it."
Ukyo paused, then added, remembering that something similar had, indeed, happened this morning. Right after having sex with Yoiko, she remembered.
"This happens to me, sometimes. I've just got the craziest sense of direction."
"Huh. I had a childhood friend like that, actually. Maybe you-"
Ukyo's heart leapt into her throat with that sentence. Here was Ranma, looking right at her, and talking about a childhood friend! Was he toying with her? If so, he really had changed. And then, he'd begun asking something... Was he going to ask if Yuriko was Ukyo? Was he going to mock her pathetic... she was going to think of it as a disguise, but then, she realized that it wasn't even really that. She waited, her eyes wide, her face pale, as Ranma continued.
"-are related to him. Ryouga... something, I'm bad with last names."
Ukyo practically face-faulted, slumping visibly with relief. If Ranma had been at all capable of picking up on not-so-subtle hints, he would understand that something had happened. Instead, he just waited for her to reply.
"Umm, no, I'm not related to any Ryouga's... it doesn't happen very often, just sometimes, and it goes away after awhile."
Ukyo thought about what Ranma had said, as he visibly pondered what she had just told him. Ryouga wasn't a common name, and here was Ranma, saying that he knew of a Ryouga that had an awful sense of direction. And, after having sex with the Ryouga she knew (the consent of said act notwithstanding), her sense of direction blew out. Was it the same Ryouga? Did Ranma know Ryouga from the old times? What did it mean if he did? Had Ryouga said something about Ranma on the airplane, she almost remembered something hazy about that. And what did that have to do with Yoiko? What if it all fit together, and Ryouga and Ranma were old friends of some kind, and Yoiko was related to Ryouga somehow. Did that actually help her, in any way?
Maybe, she thought to herself, as Ranma continued.
"Well, whatever. I think you should maybe take my hand, so you don't get lost. I don't like the idea of a girl getting lost on her own, especially in this crazy school."
At that, Ukyo's mind shutdown, and went into little-girl-with-a-crush mode. Ranma was once again playing the part of some daring knight out to rescue her, not that different from when they were kids, except that, now, he actually wanted to protect her, and not just play with her.
Though, a part of her mind added, that last part may come later.
She smiled shyly, blushing and looking down as she put her hand in Ranma's hand (his big, strong hand, covered with rough skin, but holding hers oh-so-gently, she added mentally), and nodded, not trusting her voice to work under the onslaught of emotion.
Ukyo was known to her co-workers as a very energetic girl. She was skilled, and, as far as she had to act considering how much she really did enjoy and crave sex, she could act. But, emotional... well, Ukyo did her worst acting when she had to pretend that she was being romantic. Naughty was fine, sensual, great, but romantic was just not a good idea with the proto-porn queen.
In truth, emotions that didn't really have to do with naughty, energetic kinds of sex rarely, if ever, showed up for Ukyo. And, when they did... it wasn't a pretty sight. Now, however, Ukyo was feeling shy, anxious, nervous, excited, and a not-so-tiny bit lustful, all at the same time, and none of the feelings were as difficult for her as they normally were.
When Ranma had turned away, leading her down the hallway, however, Ukyo remembered her mission. Find out information. So far, all she knew was that Ranma was still called Ranma, he was still cute as hell, he'd grown handsome over the years... Ukyo stopped herself from listing anything else on that line of thinking, as her skirt was already making it hard to hide her feelings for Ranma. But, beyond that, she only knew that Ranma ran like a bat out of hell, and he was still that same kind of vaguely indifferent kind of chivalrous that she'd found so incredibly cute and annoying at the same time, when she was a kid, and had been what drew her to spend so much time with him before she ever even played doctor with him. But, she reminded herself, she had been hurt by him. Even if he hadn't really wanted to hurt her, even if it wasn't his fault, she knew he'd pay. She'd spent too long dreaming of it to abandon it now.
Back in the present...
"So, Ranma... you told me about that friend of yours, that Ryouga... did you have any other friends, when you were a kid?
"Well, uhh, not really, my pop took me all over, right? I didn't stay in one place long, and then we'd go. But, there was one guy... Ukyo, erm, something... I really suck at last names! He was cool, but that was, like, years ago. I've already made more friends here than I have in the last few years."
Ranma wondered if he really should consider all the woman he'd fucked as friends, and then decided that it was too late to take it back now.
"A... a guy, named Ukyo? Are you sure? That actually sounds like a name that some girls have, you know?"
"No, he was a guy. Girls don't play, and we played all sorts of fun games."
Ukyo nearly face-faulted at that.
"Gosh. Sounds like fun. Did you ever play doctor with... him?"
"Uhh... yeah, but we were just kids, you know, kids do that."
Ranma blushed a bit. He didn't really want to lie, but he also didn't want to make this attractive girl think he was any less of a man among men.
"Oh, I understand, trust me!" Ukyo, of course, knew very well what kind of man Ranma was, and it wasn't his manliness that was in question, "And, did this guy, this Ukyo... well, did he have a... you know, a...?"
"A what?"
Ukyo sighed, softly. Same old Ranma.
"A penis."
"Oh. Yeah, probably, but I didn't look at that area on him. I thought it would be a little weird. When it came my turn to inspect him, I'd just look in his mouth, you know."
Ranma decided not to mention that he remembered perfectly well that Ukyo had had a creepy fascination with his manhood, as the entire thing about having himself stroked and inspected by another man sounded awfully unmanly to Ranma.
Ukyo gaped at Ranma's statement. She remembered that, actually. Despite a few attempts to get him to check her lower set of lips, he never wanted to even... look, she realized, let alone touch her. Was it possible he really didn't know? If so, it gave her breathing room. She could introduce him to her sob story, she could set him up, so he knew what he had done to her, without knowing it was her. That would make her revenge, whatever it turned out to be, all the sweeter. If Ranma knew what he'd done to her, she knew, he'd hurt himself almost as badly as her revenge hurt him. Almost.
"You know, Ranma, I had a friend when I was a kid. We played together, even though I'm a girl, and he was a boy."
"Really? Huh, that's different than what my dad told me."
Ukyo nodded to herself, remembering Genma and his rather pathetic, drunken brand of idiocy.
"Yeah, we played all sorts of games. Even doctor."
Ranma couldn't help but blush at the thought of playing doctor with Yuriko, but decided not to comment. Lucky kid, he told himself, thinking of the young boy who had learned about women with this girl.
"One day though, my father caught me playing doctor with him, and got really mad at me."
"Hey, the same thing happened to Ukyo! His dad caught us when Ukyo was... playing doctor with me, and boy, did that old chef get mad! Too bad he was such a jerk, Ukyo was cool. And I really loved the food he gave me.."
Ukyo paused, waiting to see if Ranma put two and two together. When it was clear he wasn't going to, she continued.
"My father punished me by spanking me, and telling me that what I did with my friend was very bad, and improper for a girl my age." That part, of course, was the truth. The next part was a lie however, "After that, I learned after that that I did like boys, and I hung out with them more often, just to play." The truth was that Ukyo, despite the savagery of her father's beatings, lasting for hours every day, day after day, leaving a mental scar that lasted to this day, had caused her to grow aroused each time, loving the feeling of a big man manhandling her, even if it was her father. The next part, however, was back to the truth. "My father decided that I needed help with my perverted interest in boys, and sent me to a center that was supposed to help with those kinds of problems." Ukyo paused again, letting Ranma react.
Ranma looked a bit nervous. This seemed like a lot of information, and he wasn't really sure how he was supposed to react. He knew that Ukyo was a martial artist from how fast she'd run, and he would, if he had a choice, be talking about that with her right now. Instead, he was discussing something that happened when she was a kid, and that even Ranma could tell was pretty bad. Ranma didn't have much experience talking with people about anything other than the Art, but he was pretty sure this was a weird conversation.
"Oh yeah? That's too bad... it sounds like your dad was a real jerk."
Ukyo nodded again, and continued. Certainly, her father deserved (and had received) a beat-down for what he'd done, but Ranma, whether he knew it or not, was the real source of her problems. "The clinic, unfortunately, was a cover operation for a slavery program. They tried to train me to be a slave." Ukyo left out that she meant sex slave, and that the program had been incredibly illegal and immoral for her, as a 10-year old. She also didn't mention the Hawaiian freak, whom she also wanted revenge on, who ran the clinic, and personally abused her. "They did a lot of brainwashing and even programming of my brain, but I escaped before they could finish." Again, this was the truth, even though the next part was only part of it, "After escaping, I spent years in therapy, and having trouble relating to people, and having anger issues, because of what happened to me."
She left out most of the worst of it, but she didn't want to shame herself by saying it, and Ranma, when the time came to reveal her identity, would have an idea of what he'd done to her. After escaping the clinic at age 11, she'd been in therapy for almost a year before she could even vaguely interact with other people healthily. Even then, she ran away from foster homes for years, always afraid of the way boys reacted to her already-impressive curves. It took years for her to realize that the answer was to hide them, to try and pretend that she wasn't a girl at all. She had dressed as a boy so she would be safe, and so she would be the one with the power, taking advantage of girls (something she started doing early on in her career as a cross-dresser), but then she'd been caught in the shower, at one school... and then another, and... Ukyo was punishing herself, on some level, for lying about who she was. Also, sex was almost the only thing that Ukyo actually enjoyed. She smiled a lot, that was true, but she was only happy when she had sex. Even then, it wasn't the pleasure that others felt, not really. It was hollow, and always, always made her think back on Ranma.
She had started making films because she was tall and strong, for a girl, and she needed the money to get out of her foster home nightmare. Spanking young girls on tape was really the only thing she enjoyed without reservation, and she loved it. It was a release for her anger, and a chance to enjoy lesbian sex, which didn't have the same scars for her that hetero sex did. On top of that, her girl partners didn't have to measure up to her memory of Ranma. Finally, it acted, even though she didn't know it, as a release for her self-loathing. She got to play the part of her father, punishing herself for her innate perversion.
Ukyo was, by now, mostly just an unhappy person. She spent most of her time smiling a big, energetic, fake smile, and crying on the inside. Sometimes, the tears would erupt in the night, and she'd have to sob for hours before she could do anything. She had a terrible temper, and the slightest thing could set her off. Her life had been ruined, and she felt that she was no longer a good person because of the time she spent cross-dressing (lying about who she was), spanking young girls (which, even though she enjoyed it, was cruel, because she was punishing someone else for what she had done), and simply for her undeniable perversion. She craved sex, and she only felt a release from her pain when she was having sex, and she felt guilty for it because that made her a slut, in her mind, and that made her desire to have sex to take her mind off the pain greater, which made her guilt greater, which... Ukyo was trapped in an ugly cycle, and her life was, frankly, in a fairly awful place.
Ranma paused, at the end of the story, and considered how to reply. This girl was very attractive, and she was telling him lots of stuff (and Kimiko had taught him about what that meant, being intimate and stuff), and his chin was still sore from the last time he'd said the wrong thing to an Art trained girl. It should be noted that what Ranma was saying, he meant. He felt bad for Ukyo. But, it wouldn't normally have entered his mind to say anything to try and help her. He glanced back at her, as he spoke, sheepishly.
"I'm really sorry. That sounds really, really... awful. If it helps any, I don't know, my dad lied to me about girls, like the thing about playing? Only, he lied about lots of stuff, and I only found out about it yesterday..."
Even Ranma knew that he wasn't helping much, at all, so he decided to switch tracks.
"But, if you ever need help with anything, because we are friends now, you can ask me, and I'll help you make friends, and I can introduce you to a few people I've met here."
Ukyo was slightly taken aback by Ranma's sheepish response. He was trying to comfort her, and, of course, sort of bumbling through it, but it was miles ahead of what Ranma would have said when he was a kid. She was startled both by the level of compassion he was showing, which surprised her, and how comforted she did, in fact, feel. She felt better, for simply having told him part of her story. Here he was, glancing at her, shyly, and smiling weakly, and it made her feel better, just because he cared. She blushed, slightly, at the other feelings that rose up, when she realized the effect he was having on her, and continued on with her question.
"Ranma, I was just wondering... the little boy I told you about, who I played doctor with, you remember? If he hadn't played doctor with me... if he hadn't made me consider boys more attractive, none of that bad stuff would have happened to me. Do you think he's guilty of hurting me?"
Ranma frowned, at that. It seemed like girls always wanted to blame somebody for stuff, even when it wasn't fair. He shouldn't have to apologize to Akane, and some part of himself, waiting for the slightest hint of indignation from Akane when he apologized, was ready to tell her off about it. Now, Yuriko wanted to blame some kid for what her dad and some clinic did to her. That wasn't cool. Ranma's response to Ukyo was surly.
"I don't think so. But, I wouldn't be surprised if you blamed him."
Ukyo blinked, and gaped, and nearly stopped moving even, as Ranma continued to hunt for the classroom. Ranma's anger and his statement were clear, and they only made sense if he knew who she was. Ranma was not only smarter than she'd thought, it seemed, he was a regular genius! She was about to comment, asking him how he knew, when Ranma began speaking again, his tone softer this time.
"Geez, I'm sorry. I just kinda lost my temper, because a girl sort of blamed me today for something I didn't really do... sort of. Ahh, heck, I'm sorry. I don't really know about that kid you talked about, I guess you have to decide if he did something wrong, that's not up to me."
Ukyo nearly face-faulted, amazed that she'd given Ranma that much credit. But then, that was Ranma. Oblivious to most things, kind when he remembered that anyone else in the world had feelings, and surly when you made him apologize, but willing to apologize for stuff he wasn't guilty of, in the manner of a child who has learned that no apology means no cookie, whether or not the child is guilty. And, of course, lucky, sometimes. Sometimes, he'd just land backwards into a pile of feathers, it seemed like. Sometimes, his luck ran the other way, but, all in all, Ranma was pretty lucky, and most things came to him pretty easily. Which was, Ukyo thought wryly, perhaps because the world knew that when it kept something from Ranma, he'd usually move mountains to get it. Ranma approached things simply, and with an easy attitude, and life usually went fine for him because of it. And, when it didn't, Ranma wrestled life to the ground until it tapped the mat in submission.
So. This was Ranma, seven years later. Still just... Ranma. Only more so. A bit grown up. A little more caring of others, but not much. A little smarter, but, again, not much. Still boyishly cute, but also handsome, as she'd noted before. But, basically, aside from the physical changes, he was the same. More likely to be surly than cry these days, of course, and more likely to notice when a girl was in distress and needed aid, she thought with a small, romantic smile... But, really, the same.
The same boy you've missed for seven years, a part of her mind quietly reminded her.
Just as Ukyo was blushing at that thought, Ranma suddenly stopped, as a class bell rang, and the halls were suddenly full of students. Ukyo sighed, and spoke over the din of the hallway.
"I think school is over. We missed class completely."
Ranma, always looking on the bright side, responded.
"Hey, at least we didn't get punished for being late!"
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(Posted Tue, 29 Jun 2004 05:29)
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