Most people really didn't see all that much odd with it.
Nabiki Tendo wasn't one of them, though she didn't seem to be all that bothered by what she was seeing. "May I ask just why you are there?"
"You bothered by seeing him like this?" her sister asked.
"It's not like I particular care about such things, but I'm just not used to it."
"What?" Ranma scoffed. "Are ya sayin' that ya find somethin' wrong 'bout what's goin' on?"
"Not 'wrong'. Different. As in, I'm not used to walking with you like this."
"It's not like I'm doin' anythin' major," he answered with a shrug.
"I understand that, and I know about what your father's idea about training all the time is."
"Then what's the problem?"
"It's that I'm not used to you walking where you are walking. Staying off the fence, are we?" his sister in law murmured pointedly.
He glanced over at the two girls and shifted the hand carrying his bookbag so that he could hold it over his shoulder. "Well, it just didn't seem right ta do it."
"Oh?"
"It's my first time goin' ta school with Akane, right? Then it's only right that I walk next ta her."
"Ranma...." his wife said in a pleased whisper.
"Hey, what else could I do?"
"Nothing," Nabiki stated with authority. "After all, you have to be a good husband."
"What? Bein' on that fence would be bad then?"
"Only if you fell off."
"Ya know me, Nabiki. I don't just 'fall off' like that."
"Yes, but something could make you drop into the water, or onto the sidewalk...." the elder sister mock-sighed, with her tones carrying a clear teasing quality.
"Yeah, right. Like that'd ever happen."
"You never know."
The pigtailed boy moved ahead of the sisters, and turned around so that he could speak to them face to face. "I know enough ta be sure that everythin' will be fine."
"Really?"
"I'm positive...." he said... just as they turned a corner, and a guy carrying a jug of water for an office cooler tripped, splashing the liquid all over the teenaged boy.
Akane gave her now stacked husband a flat look and didn't even glance at her sister as she spoke. "Doctor Tofu's office?"
"Doctor Tofu's office," Nabiki agreed in the same unemotional tones.
"I do believe that I missed something," Genma murmured as he pressed an ice pack to his head.
Soun shifted his own ice around and shrugged back at him. "I'm not sure that we have much that we can miss."
"True...."
Brushing the wet hair away from her face, Ranma wondered if this sort of thing was what she was going to have to look forward to. It was already proving to be a bit of a nuisance to have to deal with having boobs, but it wasn't like he could change it at the moment. But there would come a day when a cure would be hers, and she would be always masculine. Then she would no longer have to wait for her wife to bring her hot water so that she could change back, even if it was only an occasional thing.
She was just glad that the doctor's office was so close this time though.
Looking around, she wondered if there was a set look for doctor's offices, as there were some familiar things that could be found in those sorts of places. Either they had the plain white walls, basic sort of furniture, and magazines out of date, or they had a sort of country look, where the examination rooms were usually not many, and a lot of wood was shown. Having been both to rural practices, and local clinics, she tried to keep herself busy by picking out what was common to both places.
However, the placement of a skeletal hand on her shoulder was a bit more than she could take. "GAAAHHH!"
"Sorry if I scared you," apologized a young looking man who stood behind a medical display skeleton. "This is just Betty, my...."
"Doc Tofu?"
"Yes, my 'Doc To....' Wait, that's my name, and she's my skeleton."
"I know that!" the redhead barked as she slipped back to the floor.
"Oh? Have we met then?"
"Yeah, we have...."
Doctor Tofu blinked and pushed his glasses as far back as they could go as he looked over the curvy girl in front of him. "I'm sorry. I'm sure that I would have remembered someone like you...."
"It's me! Ranma!"
"Ranma? I know a 'Ranma', but that was a boy...."
"I am a guy!"
"Really...."
"That is the case, Doctor," Nabiki murmured as she came into the room with her sister. "That is the 'Ranma' that you met before."
"But this is a girl," Tofu commented.
"Ah, but watch this. Akane?"
The younger sister sighed, and poured the water from the kettle that she was holding over her husband. "Think before you do stuff, okay?"
"Yeah, I gotcha," Ranma answered, pulling his wet shirt from his chest. "Sorry 'bout that. Didn't remember that the doc didn't know about my curse."
"Not everyone does."
"It just ain' easy. But now the doc knows. See? I am Ranma, Doc."
Tofu's eyes widened a bit as he looked at the now black haired figure. "Ranma? How did that happen?"
"Well, after I saw ya last, I went with Pop ta China. When we were there, he took me ta this place deep in the mountains where they've got these cursed springs."
"Whatever drowns in them becomes a curse for anyone who falls into them," Nabiki put in.
"'Xactly. Anyone who falls inta the water gets turned inta whatever was drowned. Hot water makes them normal again, but cold turns them back ta the curse form. I fell inta the spring where a young girl drowned, so...."
"That is astonishing," the doctor admitted.
"I'd call it some less... happy names, but you're right 'bout that."
"And there aren't any other effects?"
"I ain't exactly willin' ta test them out, ya know."
"I understand," Tofu responded, chuckling a bit. "You do have to understand, that this is not something that I expected to see. It is not much how you were when I saw you last."
"Trust me, it ain't the sorta change that I wanted, or like."
"It hasn't bothered your relationship with Akane, has it? After helping the two of you get married, I'd hate to think that something would ruin things for you...."
Akane winced a little, but then put on a resolute expression. "I know that it might seem bad, but we have managed to deal with it, and I know that we can handle it."
"That's all that I could hope to hear. Of course, even if I'd known that this would happen, I would have still helped you. It was a lovely wedding."
"Which our fathers now know about," Nabiki revealed.
"They do?"
"Yes, but they don't know the details. They just know that these two are married."
"Ah, well, I think it best that your fathers know what is going on."
"All in due time," the short haired brunette said. "All in due time."
"If at all," the wife of the couple in question muttered.
"True."
Doctor Tofu shook his head in mild amusement, while:
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(Posted Fri, 07 Jul 2006 22:00)
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