Standard copyright disclaimers apply. I have no money, so don't
sue.
Of Choices and Chances (1/?)
by GT Ranma-Chan
He'd planned it for months, ever since he realized what the
problem was. At least since the failed wedding.
He'd always been taught to face his problems head-on, to look
them in the face and never shirk away. That's why this solution
made the most sense to him; he had to do it this way, to confront
his problem directly in order to vanquish it. It was the only
way he could think of to deal with the issue once and for all, to
finally put to rest the dreams and uncertainties that had haunted
him for years.
To finally be whole again.
It was early evening in the early summer, and Ranma realized that
if he was going to do this he needed to work quickly. For once
he was alone in the house: Kasumi was out on her date with Dr.
Tofu, Nabiki had elected to stay at the University for a few
extra weeks, and so was not around; Mom, Pop, and Mr. Tendou were
out doing whatever it was adults did when their children were not
looking; and Akane had decided to spend time with some of her
high school friends, one last get-together before everyone
started to drift away in post-graduation diaspora. He had only a
few precious hours to accomplish his disappearing act, and he
needed to use that time wisely; no telling when someone might
return, or when he might get another chance.
Ranma sighed, and shoved the envelope under Akane's door. For a
few moments he stared at the duck with her name on it, and tried
to recall the exact words he'd used on the note. He'd written
things there that he had never quite been able to put into voiced
words before, and now that he had committed himself to a paper
record he actually felt good about having finally done so. He
didn't, of course, tell her everything, just the basic plan of
departing for China to find a cure, or at least a bath in Spring
of Drowned Man. That part was true enough, so he wasn't starting
his new-found confidence with her by lying. But at the same
time, neither did he mention the little "detour" he planned, nor
how long he expected said detour to take. Or what he feared that
detour might reveal about himself. That would probably still be
too much for her to take, and some things he thought were still
best left unsaid.
He took one last sigh, and turned away from her door. If there
was going to be any hope of a future with her, he told himself,
he needed to do this, needed to get it out of his system. To go
someplace where no one knew him, and find out for certain. It
was the only way. He needed to confront this problem directly,
and to do so somewhere where conflicting agendas were not around
to interfere. That meant he had to do it alone, had to do it
(for honor's sake) far from everyone he knew, and (equally for
honor's sake) could not tell them what it was he planned.
Distantly, though, he had one true fear: that in his absence, the
girl of his dreams would end up choosing another, and that he
would be going through all of this for nothing.
*No.* he caught himself. *Not for nothing. You would still have
to face this sometime in your life no matter what; putting it off
will just make it worse.* And then, another voice in his head, a
little softer: *Have faith in her, and she will have faith in
you.*
Ranma returned to his room.
Another envelope lay on his desk, with a letter to the house as a
whole. For a moment he argued with himself as to where would be
the best place to leave it before he departed. He wanted to make
certain that it would not only be found, but found by someone
responsible enough to not try to keep it a secret; the last thing
he needed was to be brought back kicking and screaming "before he
did anything foolish", something which he thought was a distinct
possibility if he left the note for Pop or Mr. Tendou. After
consideration he chose Kasumi and so wrote her name on the
envelope, and decided to leave it on the kitchen table on the way
out.
That left only one thing to do.
He went to his closet, and pulled out the backpack. It was new,
the kind used generally by college students to carry their hefty
book loads and everything else in their lives. It was already
stuffed with all the things he intended to take with him.
Clothes, mostly. A book or two to keep him occupied on the
journey. And most importantly, some 250,000 Yen he had slowly
accumulated over the last year. All packed away days before,
awaiting the chance he had realized he was about to have to
execute his plan. A storage locker at the train station also
housed another suitcase, equally stuffed; he would have to pick
that up before he left town, but his plans already encompassed
that particular move. All he needed to do now was to get out of
the house, and make good his escape before anyone noticed.
He glanced at the clock. He wasn't going to make the next train,
he thought, but he probably could make the one after that. The
sooner the better, he realized, before everyone went out looking
for him.
He riffled through the backpack one last time, making certain
several items were near the top for when he needed them. Then he
zippered the pack closed, put the pack on his shoulders, picked
up the envelope, and departed the room. Down the stairs, he
paused at the kitchen table before placing the envelope there,
leaning against a vase of flowers. With luck, it would be a
hours before Kasumi came back from her date, and in the
intervening time if anyone noticed he was gone he hoped that they
wouldn't consider it too out of the ordinary.
He paused once more, and took one last look around the house.
Three years. That was how long he'd lived here, longer in one
spot than since any time he could remember. On some level he
felt a pang at his departure, since he had no idea when it was
he'd see it again. Hopefully soon, but there were no guarantees.
He would keep in contact; that much he'd promised them, although
he also knew that he wouldn't do so regularly and certainly not
revealing any contact information to his end in the process.
He'd have to be careful about that when he was on his detour; the
last thing he wanted was for them to find out about his real
plan, and show up out of the blue.
The sky was an ever-blackening dark blue when he stepped outside.
Quickly, he made his way out the front entrance and turned in the
direction he had already planned, all the time running.
Everything depended on how fast he could disappear, how fast he
could not be recognized. To do that he needed to make his way to
the spot he had scouted out weeks before, so he could make his
transition. And to do that while the window of opportunity was
still open, he had to do it now.
Twenty minutes of quick jogging later, he arrived at the spot: a
clump of trees and shrubbery in the park, slightly off the beaten
track. The immense foliage formed a rough ring around an alcove
of flat grass, a perfect hiding spot for a few minutes of
privacy. Nearby was the pond, and not much beyond that a public
ladies room, both of which made the hidden alcove that much more
perfect a location. With determination to see it through and a
fair degree of nervousness, Ranma took a waterbottle from his
backpack and filled it with water, then made his way toward the
clump of trees. Pausing at the edge of the tree-line, he
listened carefully to make certain no one else (probably some
pair of lovers, looking for a quick place of privacy) had chosen
that inopportune moment to occupy his chosen spot. Thankfully he
could hear no one, so Ranma continued carefully into the brush.
The first thing he did was to splash the water on himself,
causing a change in pronoun. Then with the change complete she
set upon her next task, that of stripping off her clothes. The
red Chinese shirt came off first, then the black pants. Both
were rolled up into a combined cloth log. Next, she opened her
backpack and began to grab for the items that she had previously
set for easy reach. First came the bra, which she put on with a
fair degree of reluctance. *Get used to it,* were the words she
used to move her forward, *because you'll be wearing these for
the foreseeable future.* Next came a pair of white cotton
panties, which she put on in record time after taking off her
boxer shorts in equally record time; she didn't feel the need to
make that particular change of clothes last any longer than it
had to. Finally, she fished out a neatly folded yellow sundress,
the kind many young women were wearing now that the weather was
warm. With a degree of hesitation she let it drop-unfold, then
unzipped the back and stepped into it, willing herself to
continue forward the entire time. After fumbling around for a
few second, she managed to get the zipper back up, then adjusted
the lay of the dress to make it more comfortable.
Flat shoes and a pair of pink-fringed white socks completed the
outfit. Then, she put her old clothes into the backpack, taking
a few extra minutes to double and triple-check that she wasn't
leaving anything behind. Confident that all was now retrieved,
she made her way carefully out of the brush, now taking care to
loop both straps of the backpack over one shoulder, in the purse-
like manner she'd seen other girls carry their backpacks. It was
now essential that she try as much as possible to emulate those
mannerisms, lest she draw attention to herself and possibly be
recognized. She'd originally planned on making the switch at the
Tendou residence, but decided against it when she realized she
might be spotted on the way out in her current form by one of the
neighbors. Not that seeing her girl form around the neighborhood
was anything unusual, but because it might give her extended
family a clue about what had happened. She didn't want to give
them any hints, so she decided holding off until she was safely
off-premises was a much better idea.
One last thing to do. She hung around the ladies public restroom
building for a few moments, trying to ascertain if there was
anyone else in there at that hour. It was now dark, so the
number of people in the park was now less, but time to the train
was also running out so she decided to just plunge ahead. Again,
luck was with her; the restroom was vacant.
She went to a sink, then propped her backpack up next to an
adjacent sink, opened a side pouch, pulled out a few items, then
turned to the mirror.
It was appalling, she thought detachedly, at some of the skills
she'd acquired since she'd gotten this rotten curse. She thought
this as she tipped a bottle of foundation into her hands, then
rubbed some of the light beige liquid onto her face with her
fingers. Next came a quick dab of blue eye shadow, a thin line
of eyeliner, some mascara, a little rouge brushed on the cheeks,
and finally some rather red lipstick that made her lips feel
oily. A few touch-ups and some powder, and she was finished with
her quick session of make-up.
She put the items back into the backpack, then reached behind her
head and methodically began to undo her braids. It took a few
minutes, but after some painful tugging the task was done. She
used a few strokes from a brush to bring some of the more unruly
areas in line, then fished some hair pins and a scrunchie out
from her backpack. Her hair was soon tied back, but hung more
loose than was normal for it. Finally, she reached once more
into her backpack, and withdrew a pair of clip-on earrings and a
heart-shaped pendant necklace.
She stepped back to examine herself in the mirror.
A girl was starring back. A pretty girl, young, sweet, shapely,
and very, very feminine. Thin, shapely legs came down from a
hemline barely at the knees. Her lips were red, pouty, almost
kissable. Her hair hung behind her, its full, red, voluminous
body hanging almost down to her trim waist. A necklace hung from
her neck, its pendant almost nestled between the hint of cleavage
revealed by the sundress' plunging neckline. She looked
beautiful, desirable, a girl on the verge of full-grown
womanhood.
And (s)he was that girl.
*No turning back.* she told herself, even as her stomach yawned
open and felt like it was plummeting. *You know you have to do
this.*
She watched herself nod back in the reflection. She'd known it
for some time now, known this was coming. She'd tried to kid
herself otherwise, tried to tell herself different, tried to say
that no matter what the exterior looked like, the interior was
and always would be the same. Even when she caught herself
thinking otherwise, even when she found herself jolting awake in
the middle of the night from the dreams, she tried to deny what
other parts of her psyche were screaming for her to notice.
Now... now she was quickly heading for an intersection from which
she would have to choose a path, and for the sake of someone she
cared for very much she needed to know the answer now. It was
just almost within her power now to obtain her cure, but before
she did that she needed to know for certain which cure she was
reaching for.
She looked at herself in the mirror once more, nodded one last
time in acknowledgment, then gathered up the last of her things.
As she stepped out into the night, she paused one last time, took
a breath, and brought forth the first few steps of this new life.
A temporary one, she hoped, but there was that persistent,
nagging voice in the back of her mind that wondered how temporary
it was. She dismissed it immediately, not wanting to think about
those implications.
"You've got what you wanted, Ranko." she said quietly to herself,
as she made her way briskly out of the park and toward the train
station. Ahead, she could see the building in the distance.
"You've got your chance."
"Now... make your case."
END OF PART ONE
There, I hope you like this little excursion. Comments would be
appreciated. Additional chapters will be forthcoming as soon as
I get around to writing them.
Anything else I forgot?
GT Ranma-Chan
[email protected]
sue.
Of Choices and Chances (1/?)
by GT Ranma-Chan
He'd planned it for months, ever since he realized what the
problem was. At least since the failed wedding.
He'd always been taught to face his problems head-on, to look
them in the face and never shirk away. That's why this solution
made the most sense to him; he had to do it this way, to confront
his problem directly in order to vanquish it. It was the only
way he could think of to deal with the issue once and for all, to
finally put to rest the dreams and uncertainties that had haunted
him for years.
To finally be whole again.
It was early evening in the early summer, and Ranma realized that
if he was going to do this he needed to work quickly. For once
he was alone in the house: Kasumi was out on her date with Dr.
Tofu, Nabiki had elected to stay at the University for a few
extra weeks, and so was not around; Mom, Pop, and Mr. Tendou were
out doing whatever it was adults did when their children were not
looking; and Akane had decided to spend time with some of her
high school friends, one last get-together before everyone
started to drift away in post-graduation diaspora. He had only a
few precious hours to accomplish his disappearing act, and he
needed to use that time wisely; no telling when someone might
return, or when he might get another chance.
Ranma sighed, and shoved the envelope under Akane's door. For a
few moments he stared at the duck with her name on it, and tried
to recall the exact words he'd used on the note. He'd written
things there that he had never quite been able to put into voiced
words before, and now that he had committed himself to a paper
record he actually felt good about having finally done so. He
didn't, of course, tell her everything, just the basic plan of
departing for China to find a cure, or at least a bath in Spring
of Drowned Man. That part was true enough, so he wasn't starting
his new-found confidence with her by lying. But at the same
time, neither did he mention the little "detour" he planned, nor
how long he expected said detour to take. Or what he feared that
detour might reveal about himself. That would probably still be
too much for her to take, and some things he thought were still
best left unsaid.
He took one last sigh, and turned away from her door. If there
was going to be any hope of a future with her, he told himself,
he needed to do this, needed to get it out of his system. To go
someplace where no one knew him, and find out for certain. It
was the only way. He needed to confront this problem directly,
and to do so somewhere where conflicting agendas were not around
to interfere. That meant he had to do it alone, had to do it
(for honor's sake) far from everyone he knew, and (equally for
honor's sake) could not tell them what it was he planned.
Distantly, though, he had one true fear: that in his absence, the
girl of his dreams would end up choosing another, and that he
would be going through all of this for nothing.
*No.* he caught himself. *Not for nothing. You would still have
to face this sometime in your life no matter what; putting it off
will just make it worse.* And then, another voice in his head, a
little softer: *Have faith in her, and she will have faith in
you.*
Ranma returned to his room.
Another envelope lay on his desk, with a letter to the house as a
whole. For a moment he argued with himself as to where would be
the best place to leave it before he departed. He wanted to make
certain that it would not only be found, but found by someone
responsible enough to not try to keep it a secret; the last thing
he needed was to be brought back kicking and screaming "before he
did anything foolish", something which he thought was a distinct
possibility if he left the note for Pop or Mr. Tendou. After
consideration he chose Kasumi and so wrote her name on the
envelope, and decided to leave it on the kitchen table on the way
out.
That left only one thing to do.
He went to his closet, and pulled out the backpack. It was new,
the kind used generally by college students to carry their hefty
book loads and everything else in their lives. It was already
stuffed with all the things he intended to take with him.
Clothes, mostly. A book or two to keep him occupied on the
journey. And most importantly, some 250,000 Yen he had slowly
accumulated over the last year. All packed away days before,
awaiting the chance he had realized he was about to have to
execute his plan. A storage locker at the train station also
housed another suitcase, equally stuffed; he would have to pick
that up before he left town, but his plans already encompassed
that particular move. All he needed to do now was to get out of
the house, and make good his escape before anyone noticed.
He glanced at the clock. He wasn't going to make the next train,
he thought, but he probably could make the one after that. The
sooner the better, he realized, before everyone went out looking
for him.
He riffled through the backpack one last time, making certain
several items were near the top for when he needed them. Then he
zippered the pack closed, put the pack on his shoulders, picked
up the envelope, and departed the room. Down the stairs, he
paused at the kitchen table before placing the envelope there,
leaning against a vase of flowers. With luck, it would be a
hours before Kasumi came back from her date, and in the
intervening time if anyone noticed he was gone he hoped that they
wouldn't consider it too out of the ordinary.
He paused once more, and took one last look around the house.
Three years. That was how long he'd lived here, longer in one
spot than since any time he could remember. On some level he
felt a pang at his departure, since he had no idea when it was
he'd see it again. Hopefully soon, but there were no guarantees.
He would keep in contact; that much he'd promised them, although
he also knew that he wouldn't do so regularly and certainly not
revealing any contact information to his end in the process.
He'd have to be careful about that when he was on his detour; the
last thing he wanted was for them to find out about his real
plan, and show up out of the blue.
The sky was an ever-blackening dark blue when he stepped outside.
Quickly, he made his way out the front entrance and turned in the
direction he had already planned, all the time running.
Everything depended on how fast he could disappear, how fast he
could not be recognized. To do that he needed to make his way to
the spot he had scouted out weeks before, so he could make his
transition. And to do that while the window of opportunity was
still open, he had to do it now.
Twenty minutes of quick jogging later, he arrived at the spot: a
clump of trees and shrubbery in the park, slightly off the beaten
track. The immense foliage formed a rough ring around an alcove
of flat grass, a perfect hiding spot for a few minutes of
privacy. Nearby was the pond, and not much beyond that a public
ladies room, both of which made the hidden alcove that much more
perfect a location. With determination to see it through and a
fair degree of nervousness, Ranma took a waterbottle from his
backpack and filled it with water, then made his way toward the
clump of trees. Pausing at the edge of the tree-line, he
listened carefully to make certain no one else (probably some
pair of lovers, looking for a quick place of privacy) had chosen
that inopportune moment to occupy his chosen spot. Thankfully he
could hear no one, so Ranma continued carefully into the brush.
The first thing he did was to splash the water on himself,
causing a change in pronoun. Then with the change complete she
set upon her next task, that of stripping off her clothes. The
red Chinese shirt came off first, then the black pants. Both
were rolled up into a combined cloth log. Next, she opened her
backpack and began to grab for the items that she had previously
set for easy reach. First came the bra, which she put on with a
fair degree of reluctance. *Get used to it,* were the words she
used to move her forward, *because you'll be wearing these for
the foreseeable future.* Next came a pair of white cotton
panties, which she put on in record time after taking off her
boxer shorts in equally record time; she didn't feel the need to
make that particular change of clothes last any longer than it
had to. Finally, she fished out a neatly folded yellow sundress,
the kind many young women were wearing now that the weather was
warm. With a degree of hesitation she let it drop-unfold, then
unzipped the back and stepped into it, willing herself to
continue forward the entire time. After fumbling around for a
few second, she managed to get the zipper back up, then adjusted
the lay of the dress to make it more comfortable.
Flat shoes and a pair of pink-fringed white socks completed the
outfit. Then, she put her old clothes into the backpack, taking
a few extra minutes to double and triple-check that she wasn't
leaving anything behind. Confident that all was now retrieved,
she made her way carefully out of the brush, now taking care to
loop both straps of the backpack over one shoulder, in the purse-
like manner she'd seen other girls carry their backpacks. It was
now essential that she try as much as possible to emulate those
mannerisms, lest she draw attention to herself and possibly be
recognized. She'd originally planned on making the switch at the
Tendou residence, but decided against it when she realized she
might be spotted on the way out in her current form by one of the
neighbors. Not that seeing her girl form around the neighborhood
was anything unusual, but because it might give her extended
family a clue about what had happened. She didn't want to give
them any hints, so she decided holding off until she was safely
off-premises was a much better idea.
One last thing to do. She hung around the ladies public restroom
building for a few moments, trying to ascertain if there was
anyone else in there at that hour. It was now dark, so the
number of people in the park was now less, but time to the train
was also running out so she decided to just plunge ahead. Again,
luck was with her; the restroom was vacant.
She went to a sink, then propped her backpack up next to an
adjacent sink, opened a side pouch, pulled out a few items, then
turned to the mirror.
It was appalling, she thought detachedly, at some of the skills
she'd acquired since she'd gotten this rotten curse. She thought
this as she tipped a bottle of foundation into her hands, then
rubbed some of the light beige liquid onto her face with her
fingers. Next came a quick dab of blue eye shadow, a thin line
of eyeliner, some mascara, a little rouge brushed on the cheeks,
and finally some rather red lipstick that made her lips feel
oily. A few touch-ups and some powder, and she was finished with
her quick session of make-up.
She put the items back into the backpack, then reached behind her
head and methodically began to undo her braids. It took a few
minutes, but after some painful tugging the task was done. She
used a few strokes from a brush to bring some of the more unruly
areas in line, then fished some hair pins and a scrunchie out
from her backpack. Her hair was soon tied back, but hung more
loose than was normal for it. Finally, she reached once more
into her backpack, and withdrew a pair of clip-on earrings and a
heart-shaped pendant necklace.
She stepped back to examine herself in the mirror.
A girl was starring back. A pretty girl, young, sweet, shapely,
and very, very feminine. Thin, shapely legs came down from a
hemline barely at the knees. Her lips were red, pouty, almost
kissable. Her hair hung behind her, its full, red, voluminous
body hanging almost down to her trim waist. A necklace hung from
her neck, its pendant almost nestled between the hint of cleavage
revealed by the sundress' plunging neckline. She looked
beautiful, desirable, a girl on the verge of full-grown
womanhood.
And (s)he was that girl.
*No turning back.* she told herself, even as her stomach yawned
open and felt like it was plummeting. *You know you have to do
this.*
She watched herself nod back in the reflection. She'd known it
for some time now, known this was coming. She'd tried to kid
herself otherwise, tried to tell herself different, tried to say
that no matter what the exterior looked like, the interior was
and always would be the same. Even when she caught herself
thinking otherwise, even when she found herself jolting awake in
the middle of the night from the dreams, she tried to deny what
other parts of her psyche were screaming for her to notice.
Now... now she was quickly heading for an intersection from which
she would have to choose a path, and for the sake of someone she
cared for very much she needed to know the answer now. It was
just almost within her power now to obtain her cure, but before
she did that she needed to know for certain which cure she was
reaching for.
She looked at herself in the mirror once more, nodded one last
time in acknowledgment, then gathered up the last of her things.
As she stepped out into the night, she paused one last time, took
a breath, and brought forth the first few steps of this new life.
A temporary one, she hoped, but there was that persistent,
nagging voice in the back of her mind that wondered how temporary
it was. She dismissed it immediately, not wanting to think about
those implications.
"You've got what you wanted, Ranko." she said quietly to herself,
as she made her way briskly out of the park and toward the train
station. Ahead, she could see the building in the distance.
"You've got your chance."
"Now... make your case."
END OF PART ONE
There, I hope you like this little excursion. Comments would be
appreciated. Additional chapters will be forthcoming as soon as
I get around to writing them.
Anything else I forgot?
GT Ranma-Chan
[email protected]