Ranma lay in Nabiki’s bed, still female, and with hair slightly damp. In her mind, she was trying to understand what had just happened.
She was female. The water—no matter how hot—didn’t change her back to her male form.
Why?
Happosai? Amazons? Some trick inside Jusenkyo that she didn’t know about?
She was tempted to rub her head again. It hurt for some reason, a headache that was not the result of her drinking last night.
Hell, she had a sore spot at her crotch, but she blamed that on the panda, as she definitely recalled the lumbering ox hitting her male form with a drunken cheap shot before Ranma laid him out.
She was confused, scared, and likely to lash out at anyone coming to check up on her.
But she didn’t.
She could hear the yelling downstairs, as clear to her as when Akane had entered the furo...laughing that she was stuck as female again? Why, was she really filled with that much hate towards Ranma?
“Oh, such a weak son to be locked again!”
“I’m not marrying the pervert if he’s a girl!”
“Poor Ranma-chan. Maybe we need to take her to the doctor again?”
Ranma shivered at that. That was the only explanation: that the doctor had somehow did this. As she pondered it, the pieces began to form a warped picture. The outfit, the treatment, the disease: none of them made any sense. She didn’t feel any itch until after she left the doctor, she wasn’t covered by that outfit when she received the treatment.
Why didn’t she notice it before?
The itch! That had deluded her mind. While it was raging, she couldn’t think straight.
But could Doc Tofu have steered her wrong.
As she thought more about it, it made sense. Maybe she got to the doc as well. Maybe that was why he couldn’t handle himself around Kasumi.
Soon, she was lost in thought, and the voices from the first floor dwindled into quiet.
It was when she felt a nude body enter the bed and wrap their arms around her that she snapped awake, looking over to see Nabiki’s teary-eyed face staring back. “I’m sorry, Saotome.”
“Huh?”
“Listen, I should have seen whatever did this to you, and as your fiancée, it is my job to look out for you.”
Ranma’s eyes became downcast. “She shifted me off on you, again?”
“Well, first she and your father tried to shift it to my dad, but a threat of telling Auntie settled that idea. I volunteered.” She began to nuzzle into the redhead’s shoulder. “I already have people looking into it, seeing if we can figure out why a Jusenkyo curse would lock on its own.”
“T...thanks, Nabiki.” For some reason, Ranma felt she could trust the girl. “I think you should look into Doctor Michiko as well. I know she had something to do with this.”
“I will, Ranma. Just...just relax for a bit. Let me take care of this for you. You’ve had it bad enough today as is.”
Thu Aug 04 23:38:20 2005
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