Since their children had left, Genma Saotome was uncomfortably aware of the fact that it was just him and his dead best friend’s wife in the house. Alone. It didn’t feel appropriate, especially since he still considered himself married. but Hana Tendo was a good woman and a fantastic host, and Genma would not betray the trust she put in them by inviting them into her home.

  Which, frankly, confused him. He stopped thinking of himself as a good man years ago, and a good father even longer. While he was trying to improve now he couldn’t shake the sense that he was just pretending, that everyone who met him somehow knew the decades of wrongdoing he’d committed. He was far too gone for anyone to take a chance on, he’d done too much bad to be good now.

  If it wasn’t for Ranma that is. His only child, the last piece of his missing wife to connect him to a noble past and the promise of a brighter future.

  Ranma was, he suspected, the reason Mrs. Tendo invited the two to stay. Genma’d made a lot of mistakes raising the boy, falling back on lessons that were failing him before Ranma was even born and that was evident in his behavior. Ranma was basically feral because of his mistakes. Genma paid attention to the way Hana treated Ranma when he’d arrived — seemingly alone — at her house. She’d been protective, compassionate, kind, even made sure her boys weren’t bothering Genma’s kid.

  There was no way he could ever repay her for this.

  Not that he wasn’t going to try. He’d spent the morning washing the dishes, moving the laundry, cleaning the bathroom (panda hair got everywhere), and sweeping the first floor. After two hours of homemaking she called him into the living room for tea.

  “Mr. Saotome, you make a better housewife than I did,” she chuckled. “Certainly you’ve done more this morning than Soun ever did in a day.” She kept her eyes on him while sipping her tea, taking measure of how he responded to her good-natured ribbing.

  To his credit he took it in stride. “You’ve made your home available to my child and me, keeping it maintained is the least I could do,” he responded with a smile while politely sipping his own.

  Nodding, she subtly analyzed him as they sat in silence. He fidgeted, clearly uncomfortable, and kept twisting the wedding band on his finger whenever he had a moment. It didn’t make for a relaxing break, so she moved on to the next stage of her plan.

  “Soun told me you played shogi? We probably have time for a game before Ranma gets back.” Hana slid an aged, wooden box out from under the table as she ended the awkward silence. Genma’s eyes went wide with recognition.

  “That’s the same set we used!” He excitedly took it from her and began setting it up. Some pieces had been replaced over the years, so the set was a mixture of old and new, but to him it was clearly still the same set.

  One piece was blank — the kanji had worn off — but he knew it was one of the pawns. “Soun and I spent so much time trying to cheat each other. This was the one honest piece in the bunch ‘cause we wore it down.”

  Hana grinned, remembering Soun telling her the story when she offered to repaint the piece. “I hope you’ve kept your skills sharp then, Mr. Saotome: Soun never played fair with me and I’m not going to start now.”

  His resounding guffaw broke whatever tension was left in the room and she nodded. She appreciated his willingness to help around the house, and it was nice to have someone else around during the day, but he’d been so nervous she couldn’t relax.

  Ranma stepped into the genkan and slipped off his now-oversized shoes. “I’m back!” he called out. He was still mulling over what to do about school as he walked through the house.

  “We’re in the living room!” his dad called back. He sounded happy, which boded well for the rest of the day. Maybe they’d decide to order out instead of cooking?

  As he entered the room he saw Genma and Mrs. Tendo playing shogi. That explained his mood, he loved the game. Ranma never really had the patience for it so he was glad he finally found someone else to play with. Mrs. Tendo looked over Genma’s shoulder to smile at Ranma when her eyes went wide and she covered her mouth with her hands to gasp in shock. Genma whirled, looked at Ranma, and sprang up with fear in his eyes.

  “What?” Ranma glanced around in a panic, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. His dad was in front of him in a flash, staring at his neck?

  “Where’d you get these bruises?” he demanded. “Are you okay? Did someone do this to you?” His nose wrinkled as he smelled something odd, chemical. He leaned in for a closer inspection. “Did you go swimming?”

  Oh, Kodachi had put, like, all her weight on Ranma’s neck at one point, now it made sense. He shrugged. “Kind of?” The adults guided him over to the table and sat him down, Mrs. Tendo disappearing and reappearing with a glass of cold barley tea and a mirror.

  Sure enough, Ranma’s neck was basically a red and purple splotch. “Oh, huh, that wasn’t there when I left, I think.” He sounded utterly unperturbed which somehow both calmed and worried Genma. He knew his son had a tendency to minimize his own pain, especially in front of an audience.

  “So this bruise just magically showed up on your neck then?” Genma needed Ranma to focus and explain what happened. Flashes of Ranma coming home during middle school and the aftermath of that horrible bullying played in Genma’s mind.

  Ranma’s irritation was expected but at least it got him on track. “No, idiot, this crazy girl attacked me...or I guess technically she attacked Akio. I was dumb enough to get in the way.”

  Genma breathed a sigh of relief. If he was getting involved in a fight he hadn’t started they could work with that, so long as he—wait, Mrs. Tendo just sighed. What did she know?

  “Kodachi Kuno?” Ranma nodded in agreement. “She was one of Naoki and Akio’s best friends in middle school. They used to spend a lot of time here, she and her little brother, Tatewaki.” She sighed as she reminisced. “When Akio was in eighth grade she asked him out and he said no. She seemed okay if a little disappointed, but once she got to high school she changed. At first it seemed like a good change: she was driven, quickly became the most popular girl in her class, joined the hockey team. We were so proud, especially Akio. She tried asking him out but he said no again. She didn’t take it as well this time.”

  Something fluttered in the bottom of Ranma's stomach when he heard that Akio turned down the beautiful, talented, awesome — if clearly obsessed and violent — martial artist girl twice , even after she’d gotten popular. He wondered if Akio would have gone on a date with him if he'd asked before the Tendos discovered his secret.

  Mrs. Tendo grit her teeth before continuing. “She’s been taking her frustration out on Akio ever since. I’ve tried to talk to the school but her father is the principal and the Kuno family is very wealthy and tied to several local institutions.”

  The ominous way Hana described her family made Ranma imagine the intense, wannabe samurai he’d met this morning as some sort of yakuza wife and he had to suppress a giggle. “Well I doubt she’s gonna bother me or Akio anymore, I won both our fights. Didn’t even feel this one though, she’s better than I thought.” He gingerly touched the bruise on the side of his neck.

  Ranma’s dad didn’t seem so sure. The girl sounded determined and was demonstrably willing to pursue her goals. The fact that she picked a fight with two boys especially. Something about that thought felt wrong somehow, like he was missing something. Something important. Something right in front of him.

  “Oh! Were you a girl when you fought her?” It suddenly clicked and he realized his son must have been the target of jealousy.

  Confirming his suspicions, Ranma nodded. “Yeah, sorry. I’ve been trying to stay in my boy form but weird stuff happened to me three times today! First there was your stupid move this morning in the pond, then some old blind lady splashed me on our way to school, then I ran into a group of girls holding buckets in the hallway. I was already a girl before I jumped in the pool!”

  Pool? Well that explains the smell . Genma thought. “Why'd you jump in a pool, anyway?”

  An enormous grin split his son’s face in half as pride filled his eyes, and he began gesticulating wildly to punctuate his explanation. “Oh dad, you would have loved it! We were on the third floor, I was talkin’ to those girls and Kodachi shows up. Naoki told her we were staying here and she did not like that. Anyway, we have a quick fight, pretty sure she gave me these bruises when she was on top of me with a golf club, but I — accidentally, I promise — threw her out the window.”

  Hana gasped again. “From the third floor?”

  “Yep! Lucky the window was over the pool, so I dive in and pull her out of the water, she’s not breathing—” he took a breath mostly to build anticipation for the climax of the story. “And had to give her CPR. Just a few chest compressions and she was fine, nurse told her she could go back to class if she wanted.” He put his hands behind his head, grinning all the while.

  Mrs. Tendo sighed in relief as Genma beamed. “Ranma, I’m so proud of you! Every martial artist knows injuries come with the territory, but you probably saved that girl’s life." Truly his son had come a long way since middle school. It made the trip to China feel like maybe it was worth it. With a guffaw he continued, "I won’t be surprised if she comes after you once she finds out you’re a boy.”

  Akio’s morning brawl against the Horde played through Ranma’s mind, lingering for a moment on Akio's victory pose before the fight with Kodachi. Then all he could see was the fury in her face. The way she’d looked at him after the pool creeped him out and honestly he didn’t want anything to do with her anymore.

  Worse was the worry that if she found out he was a boy she had the social power to make his life hell . Especially if she wanted to…get involved with him like that. Unfortunately, his dad seemed pretty excited about the fact that he might have gotten an unwanted admirer. He didn’t want to disappoint him after he’d been so supportive recently.

  Before he could begin spiraling, Mrs. Tendo interjected. “Ranma, your laundry is probably dry by now. You should get changed and head to Dr. Tofu’s now, I’ve still got some chores to take care of. Get that bruise looked at, ask about your conditions, I’ll come collect you two for groceries.”

  With an all-too familiar groan Ranma stomped off to comply. Before Genma could follow Hana grabbed his shoulder. “Mr. Saotome, apologies. Would you care for some advice, one single parent of boys to another?”

  Uncertainty clouded Genma’s thoughts as he worried what he might have done or said or not done. Hana was a good woman who cared about his son’s well-being, and she did have more experience. He quieted an echo of the unreasonable pride he used to embody, “Please, I appreciate it.”

  “Sometimes you get a sense that your children have something to say but don’t want to upset you. Katsumi never had that problem but Naoki and Akio, especially Akio, did. I suspect Ranma isn’t excited about the prospect of Kodachi’s romantic attention given that his first interaction with her was violent.”

  There was wisdom in her words, Genma knew. “Are you sure? We haven’t had a chance for him to meet very many girls, especially his age, for a while. Before we went to China he was in an all-boys school. And normally he loves fighting.”

  Hana rolled her eyes but wasn’t surprised. Soun could be oblivious like this too. “What I’ve learned is that young men aren’t exclusively motivated by young women, and Kodachi is...resilient. Regardless, I saw Ranma’s face and he seemed stressed. You have to coax boys into saying what they’re feeling, so I’d ask him about it. Sooner rather than later.” She delivered the last line to emphasize its importance.

  Genma smiled. He should have found Ranma a mother figure sooner. “Thank you Mrs. Tendo, I appreciate it.”

  Broaching a potentially sensitive topic turned out to be harder than Genma expected. Ranma changed back to his birth form and donned a sleeveless white tangzhuang. He realized Hana was probably right when his son didn’t say anything on the walk. They used to be able to hike for hours without saying a word and he’d always assumed that was a sign that they had a close bond, but now the silence felt awkward and distant.

  What he didn’t know was that Ranma was also working up his courage to ask about a potentially sensitive topic. He really wanted to know what an athletic supporter was after this morning’s multiple fights and hadn’t dared ask Naoki- sensei while at school. He was surprised his chest wasn’t bruised after all the bouncing he’d done.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Naturally, they both finally started to talk at the same time.

  “Ranma did you—?”

  “Hey dad what’s a—?”

  They stopped, stared, and laughed. Tension and awkwardness dissolved in an instant, the specter of social fear dispelled. Genma wiped a tear from the corner of his eye as his laughter diminished. “Sorry son, what’d you want to ask?”

  He wanted to do the polite thing and let his dad talk first but was worried he’d lose the nerve to ask his question if he waited, so Ranma dove straight in. “Last night when Naoki was showing me how to, uh, look like a boy he told me about something called ‘athletic supporters.’ He said they’d help me in fights and after this morning I wish I had one, do you know what he’s talking about?”

  To his relief, Genma was just as confused as he was. “Uhhh…the only athletic support I’m familiar with is a jock strap. Which…I mean that’s certainly useful for support when you’re a boy.”

  “Yeah, that wouldn’t have helped me out this morning. Maybe Dr. Tofu will know? Or Katsumi?” Ranma shrugged. If nothing else he’d ask Naoki after school. “What’d you want to say?”

  Genma swallowed, he was much less prepared than Ranma to follow through with what he needed to talk about. But Hana knew what she was talking about, and the worst that could happen is that Ranma thought he was being a little annoying. “So…back at the house, when I joked about this Kuno girl pursuing you…did that bother you? I don’t want you to feel like I…I don’t know, want you to get involved with a girl like that.”

  Ranma looked away and bit his lip, considering what his father said. It was true though, he didn’t like the idea of dating Kodachi. It was like his dad lifted a weight off his shoulders though. “It…it did, yeah. I don’t want to go for the first girl who throws herself at me, ya know?” He shuddered. “Plus she’s some sort of obsessive weirdo. She wore a kimono. She wore two kimonos, she changed into a new one between fights!”

  Scratching his chin in thought, Genma cracked a smile as he flippantly responded. “Family must be pretty loaded.”

  “Pfft. Yeah I’ll bet. But, uh…” Okay, he could do this. His dad might not know what an athletic supporter was but he’d probably have advice about how he should go to school. It had to be a bad idea anyway, right? “...So, everybody I talked to except for, like, the receptionist met me as a girl today. Including all the students who came up to me after the pool thing. Sayuri and her friends even…asked if I wanted to teach girls specifically. They were hopeful about it.”

  His dad just nodded. “Sounds like you’re gonna be a bonafide celebrity before your first day. You seem worried though.”

  “Well it’s just…what if I just went to school…as a girl?” The question hung there as Ranma stared at his dad’s bare feet. His cheeks burned and the world started to spin the longer Genma took to respond. Just asking was stupid enough, but his dad would tell him it was a bad idea and that would be that, and he could stop obsessing over it, and he’d just explain the curse. People would think it was weird but he’d tried to present himself honestly. If that didn’t work out, well, there was probably another school in the area he could go to.

  That’s not what Genma said though. “I think people will understand you’ve got a strange curse if you just show the staff, and I bet we can get Dr. Tofu to write you some sort of note, but I'll support whatever you want to do.”

  Wide-eyed, Ranma looked to see his dad’s calm, thoughtful face. No judgment, confusion, or even surprise. Just a sad smile. “You don’t think it’s a bad idea?” Ranma asked.

  “I want to make sure you’ve thought through what you’re proposing. You’d have to use the girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, you’ll probably have to take home economics…though they’ve been trying to make that mandatory for boys for a few years now anyway.” Two things did worry Genma, given Ranma’s history. “You’ll have to put up with boys being interested in you instead of girls. I dropped out of high school in the 60s but I doubt they’ve changed too much. Finally, the longer you go without revealing your curse the harder it will be if it’s ever made public.”

  Everything laid out like that did sound scary, but was it more or less scary than the alternative? If he made close friends would they accept or even forgive him once the curse became known? Maybe he could even get them to help if it wasn’t too public. Akio and Naoki already knew so he at least had a couple of people who could help him out.

  “When we fill out the registration form I’ll leave your gender blank so you can take as much time as you need to think about it, okay?” Genma gave him a reassuring smile yet again.

  Ranma realized he was bothered by how unbothered his dad was by all this. How unbothered he’d been for the past two weeks. Two years ago he pulled Ranma out of school because he was too girly but now he was fine letting him go as a girl? Even going so far as to give him advice on how to handle it? It didn’t make sense.

  Katsumi heard the desk bell ring while he was helping Dr. Tofu with a patient. Katsumi was still pre-med so he wasn’t doing more than observing, taking notes, and getting anything the doctor asked for, so he was able to take a break and head to the front. He knew to expect the Saotomes, his mother called when they headed out.

  He wasn’t expecting them to show up dripping wet and in spring form. Or at least not Mr. Saotome. They weren’t a veterinarian’s office after all. He couldn’t worry about that though: as soon as he laid eyes on Ranma and saw the bruises around her neck he was locked in. “Good afternoon Mr. Saotome, Ranma. Sir I took the liberty of setting up a couple of thermoses for each of you in case something like this happened, they’re in the kitchen area there, please help yourself to one.” He gestured down the hall. “If you change back please wait here until Dr. Tofu or myself returns, thank you. Ranma I want to start treating that bruise immediately. If you want to change I understand.”

  Nobody responded. Katsumi winced at himself. Dr. Tofu warned him about speaking too fast, especially to new patients. It was just so hard to slow down when someone was injured.

  The panda — Mr. Saotome that is — pulled out a marker and sign and quickly scribbled a response. #THANK YOU# and trundled off to the kitchenette. Ranma shrugged. “Katsumi, whatever you think is best, I guess.”

  Oh. I wonder why they paused , Katsumi wondered as he ushered Ranma into a private area. He was determined to impress the Saotomes after the way they’d crashed into his life. And a part of him especially wanted to impress Ranma. She…he?...no, right now it was she, of course. She was a lively, feral traveler who’d already gotten injured somehow. He wanted her to know she could trust his expertise, especially since she’d probably be getting into more scrapes.

  “I’ll get Dr. Tofu here as soon as I can. Here is a cold compress, press that against your neck. If we reduce the swelling it will heal faster.” He pulled out a clipboard and swiftly filled in all the normal intake information. “Just a couple of questions. May I list our address for you? When is your birthday? Do you know your height and weight and if not may we measure you? When—”

  Before he could keep asking questions Ranma snapped her fingers to get his attention. “Hey, hey nerd, slow the hell down. Haven’t even had a chance to answer.” Katsumi blushed and raised the board defensively out of habit. Nobody had called him a nerd for over a year now; coming from Ranma the nickname stung.

  The reason Ranma and his father had paused wasn’t because Katsumi was talking too fast. If anything he was talking too slow. Something they’d noticed about him in the short 24 hours they’d been in his house is that he was always rushing. Or angry. They expected him to sneer at them for taking longer than fifteen minutes getting to the clinic, to talk down to them for their itinerant lifestyle, for being cursed in the first place, something .

  Instead he was a perfect gentleman. Once he got Ranma into a private area alone he started slipping only in terms of how fast he talked, and then only as he was filling out paperwork. Ranma’s eyes boggled at how fast his hands were and how neat his handwriting was. It wasn’t mechanical either, it was just very good, very clear writing.

  Then he made the poor guy blush and his heart skipped a beat. For all his bluster and anger at home, he was somehow more vulnerable and more defensive at the same time here at the clinic. “Hey man, sorry about that. I got a habit for nicknamin’ people and I went with the low-hangin’ fruit, won’t do it again, okay?”

  Katsumi nodded and relaxed a little bit. “I’ll let you fill out the rest while I get Dr. Tofu.” As he drew the curtain closed he chastised himself. Good job Katsumi, one more cute girl called you a nerd. At least she apologized, but that’s not the first screw up is it? You were pushy and mean, just like—

  “Dr. Tofu, Ranma Saotome in exam room 3 when you’re ready.” He spoke softly and tapped the doctor on the shoulder as he was assisting his previous patient to her feet.

  “Thank you Katsumi. This way Mrs. Okamoto.”

  Ranma was nervous. Katsumi just left him here and now he was worried the elder Tendo was mad at him for calling him a nerd. He needed to work on thinking before he spoke, especially if he was gonna try and go girl at school.

  The longer he thought about it the more it seemed like it was just gonna happen, or more specifically that he was gonna make it happen. It would be his choice. All his and nobody else’s. Nobody was telling him to do it, but nobody was telling him not to do it, not even his dad. Mrs. Tendo was a woman, maybe she’d set him straight. Yeah…yeah! When he got back to the Tendo house he’d ask her about it. She’d be a little offended that he was thinking about pretending to be her gender, tell him he shouldn’t be trying to get a free show of the girls, and that’d be that.

  Finally relieved that he’d found a way out of his predicament he leaned back, pressed the cold thing up to his neck, and let himself relax. Damn Katsumi is tall , he thought. Why’s everybody so much taller than me? Am I that short as a girl?

  He thought about all the Tendo boys. Their mom was tall for a woman, almost as tall as Ranma was as a boy. He imagined they got most of their height from their dad, guy must have been huge. They were all almost as tall as they were nice apparently, even Katsumi once you got him in some scrubs.

  The man who came through the privacy curtain was — finally — not some sort of freaky giant person. “Hello Ranma, I’m Dr. Tofu. I’m told you have a couple different reasons for being here today?”

  Between his round glasses, bandana, and mask Ranma couldn’t really make out the details of his face but his voice was clear, soft, and polite. “Ah yeah, sorry doc,” he said while pulling the compress off his throat. “Got into a fight earlier, the other girl hit me with a hockey stick and then basically put all her weight on a golf club on my neck for a second. I didn’t even realize it until I got home.”

  “May I?” Tofu asked, indicating his hands. Ranma nodded and the doctor gently moved his head around and pressed on the bruises. “This certainly looks dramatic but it seems superficial. I see Katsumi has already given you a cold compress, you’ll want to apply some sort of cold for no more than a half hour per day to bring the swelling down and encourage proper healing. I’ve also got a cayenne-based rubbing oil if you’d like.”

  Ranma shook his head. “Nah that’s fine, doc, honestly I feel okay. Bruises ain’t usually a problem for me.”

  “All right then. The other issue Katsumi told me is more mystical in nature, though he was vague about the details.”

  “Mystical all right. If you get me some hot water I can show you exactly what I’m dealing with.” Ranma put the compress back on his neck, soothed by the cold. “The short of it is that a magic spring makes me turn into a girl or a boy depending on water temperature.”

  “Oh, my, a spring? Where’d you find something like that?” Tofu’s inflection sounded the same as if Ranma said he’d seen a weird-looking dog.

  “Northwest China, dad and I went on a training trip. Dumbass can’t read Mandarin though.” Ranma opened and closed his mouth a few times before continuing. “I mean I can’t either, I don’t wanna throw him under the bus or nothin’. He got it worse than me, he turns into a panda.”

  Tofu’s eyes went wide behind his glasses, though his voice remained even. “Oh, yes I’d say you got the better end of that deal. Do either of you experience any sort of mental changes? I don’t know how you would know but what about him?”

  For some reason Ranma focused on himself rather than thinking about his dad’s condition. There were plenty of mental changes when he was a girl. His senses seemed more acute, for one. “Well, actually doc I have noticed some stuff change when I’m a chick.” Maybe the doctor would have something to work with. “Like colors, ya know? They’re more…colorful, if that makes sense? Like things seem brighter an’ more…positive. Plus food tastes better, like sugar!” He’d developed quite a sweet tooth as a girl, though he wasn’t going to admit that he’d been indulging in it.

  “Interesting. Would you say the world seems more vibrant, more expressive? And would you say your mood is better in general?” The doctor was taking this seriously! Ranma thanked whatever kami decided to give him a break. Katsumi was right, Tofu was legit.

  “Vibrant! Yeah that’s a great way to describe it. And I dunno if I’d say I’m in a better mood, but I guess it’s easier to cheer myself up?” That was probably why people said women are more emotional than men. He was living proof!

  “I’ll have to talk with your father and see what sort of mental changes he experiences, thank you for sharing that with me.” He picked up the clipboard Katsumi left and looked it over. “I notice Katsumi didn’t write down your sex. Would you like to be referred to by your anatomical sex, which I assume is male?”

  Ranma thought the question was odd. Why would the doctor need to ask that? “Anatom…I was born a guy if that’s what you mean, yeah.”

  “So that is what you want me to put down?” Tofu repeated the question.

  “...Yeah?” Maybe the doctor wasn’t as legit as he thought if he was having trouble with the question. “I fell into the Spring of the Drowned Girl, so now my curse is to turn into a girl when I get cold water on me, and hot water turns me back into a guy.”

  The doctor didn’t write anything down yet. “When did this happen to you?”

  “Little over two weeks ago,” Ranma was now fixated on the doctor not writing down his gender. “Didn’t find out about the hot water thing for like a week so I was stuck as a chick the whole time. Uh, doc, why ain’t you writing down that I’m a guy?”

  “Oh, my apologies Ranma.” He finally made the mark and handed the clipboard back to the cursed boy. “Is everything on the form correct?”

  Ranma still didn’t actually know the Tendo’s address but everything else looked good. Though now that he was looking at it he wondered why the M next to sex made him feel like he had a pit in his stomach. “Yeah, do you have any other questions?”

  “Not right this moment, though I haven’t spoken to your father.” Tofu shook his head. “I’ll look into the matter though, you have my word. Have you met anyone else who’s fallen in to one of these springs?”

  “Nope, just us. The guide at the springs told us some poor kid had ended up there right after us but he’d wandered off before we came back,” Ranma hoped whoever that was hadn’t ended up in one of the ones that sounded really bad, like the spring of drowned duck.

  “Oh, before you go, I had a question, not about my health or anything,” Ranma almost forgot. “What’s an athletic supporter? The only one my dad and I could think of was a jock strap, but a friend...well you know him, Naoki Tendo, suggested I check out athletic supporters for when I’m in this form, said it could help me fight.”

  Dr. Tofu froze. It was the first time Ranma saw him look nervous. “Ah, well, the more common term for them would be sports bra. They’re for securing breast tissue.” Ono Tofu knew as soon as Ranma asked he wouldn’t like the answer and he was not wrong.

  Betrayal surged up in Ranma’s gut as he felt heat flash behind his face, his skin turning a deep shade of red from fury and embarassment. “ He wanted me to wear a bra!? ”

  Back in Furinkan High school, Naoki Tendo suddenly sneezed as he sat down to eat his lunch, a simple storebought katsu sando. He savored the tangy sweetness of the kewpie as he chowed down, chasing it with a Sprite Light. Normally he ate by himself in the courtyard, but today Kodachi Kuno decided to come sit next to him.

  “Damn, did Ranma ruin a second kimono of yours today, Kodachi baby?” He monotoned, daring her to confront him. “I can’t even remember the last time I saw you in uniform.”

  “Cease thine prattle, Tendo-san,” she snapped back. “I come not to match blade or wit but to speak, honestly, as men do.”

  Naoki chuckled. Ranma must have really pissed her off by giving her CPR. He just hoped her retaliation against the Saotome kid wasn’t too dire. “Sweetie neither of us are qualified to speak about men unless we’re talking about what kind we like, and even then I don’t wanna hear your answer because I don’t wanna think about my brother like that.”

  “Enough!” she shouted. He frowned as he finished off the first half of his sandwich. “This is about the Saotome girl staying with you and yours. I would ask you to explain why, how, and her intentions with the good Lord Akio.

  Rolling his eyes, Naoki considered just telling her the truth. It would make things easier for everybody just to get it over with now, Ranma showing up tomorrow as a guy would confirm it and while Kodachi might end up with a little egg on her face everybody would probably get a big laugh out of it.

  But she’d been tormenting his brother for almost a year now, he was gonna mess with her. “Okay, here’s the truth.” He leaned forward conspiratorially and lowered his voice to near silence. “They weren’t gonna announce it until she started coming here full time but it turns out our dads were, like, brothers in arms back in the day, yeah?”

  Kodachi nodded as she followed along. “So to secure the future of their bloodlines and keep their martial arts school thing—”

  “The Tendo Anything Goes School of Martial Arts?” Kodachi asked, jealous that the Tendo family had a whole martial arts school.

  “The Unified Anything Goes School in this case, but yeah. Anyway, they promise each other that when their children come of age they’ll meet back up and bring the schools together…” He paused to take an indulgent swig of his aspartame-infused soda, enjoying the look of desperation on Kodachi’s face. “Ahhh, refreshing. Anyway, they were gonna bring the schools together with…”

  Making a big show of looking around to make sure nobody was close, he leaned in even closer to Kodachi and gave her a serious look. “I need your word that you’re not gonna tell anybody about this, okay? I’m only telling you ‘cause of our history.”

  Kuno’s head whipped up and down frantically. “I swear on mine family’s honor!”

  Naoki nodded in a way that he hoped read as somber, he really needed to keep a straight face for just a few more seconds. “Thank you Kuno-san. My dad and Genma Saotome promised each other that their heirs, to secure the bloodline and the school, would be...married.”

  The look on her face was worth it, and the best part is that he didn’t even lie. Their dads had done all that.

  Kodachi wanted to scream. Her heart was being pulled in a thousand different directions. The promise of two warriors was a noble, powerful thing indeed, and it meant that the Saotome girl and her beautiful Akio hadn’t technically chosen each other so much as they were thrust together, but this meant that he was forever lost to her.

  She stood up, heard herself thank Naoki for confiding in her, and robotically walked away. She needed to meditate on what to do next.

  Naoki wore the biggest, smuggest smirk he could as he finished up his sandwich. Normally he preferred savory but this small, petty sense of revenge tasted oh so sweet.