July 6, 1991

9:39 AM

Ranko peeled off the oversized black tee shirt Akane had procured for her, tossing it onto the unmade bed of the apartment above the Phoenix.

“Ranko, I…” Akane reached out for her nude bride, but she had no idea what she was going to say or do after that. How could she even begin to fathom the appropriate way to respond to the last three hours?

“I need to take a shower,” Ranko said contemplatively as she pushed open the bathroom door just to the left of the closet.

Akane followed her, concern in her eyes. “You’re not gonna do what I think you’re gonna do, are you?”

A hollow gaze came in reply, but not a sad one. Ranko’s eyes looked like an empty vessel that sought to be filled with something, but did not know what with. “Akane, I… I have to know.”

“I understand,” Akane replied, her voice steeled with determination. She peeled off her blood-spattered tank top, throwing it toward a trash can that wasn’t large enough to hold it, and began to pull down her sweatpants. “I’m getting in there with you.”

Ranko shook her head as she reached for the shower knob, turning it to its coldest setting. “You don’t have to do that.”

Akane pulled Ranko out of arm’s reach of the combination shower stall and bathtub, holding her tight against herself. The naked redhead shivered in her arms from the chill of the cold mist rising from the shower. “Yes, I do. Whatever happens, I am going to be there for you.” Especially if it doesn’t go the way you want.

Letting her lover go, Akane stepped into the icy shower, yelping loudly. “Gods! How the hell do you even tolerate this?! C’mon, get in here.” While she waited for Ranko to join her, she rubbed a bar of lavender-scented soap vigorously over herself. While she’d just had a shower the night before, when they’d gotten back to the apartment after their bachelorette party, Akane couldn’t get the crawling sensation of being sprayed with Genma’s blood out of her mind.

“Necessity,” Ranko said as she pulled aside the shower curtain and stepped into the shower at the far end, as Akane occupied the middle of the tub between her and the shower head. “This actually feels kind of good. My skin still burns from before.”

I’ll bet, love. I’m so sorry I couldn’t stop it. I let him hurt you again. At least this time, he paid for it. “Okay, I’m going to turn the heat up just a little. You ready?” Akane spun slowly in place, letting the steady stream of brisk water rinse the soap from her skin and some of the disgust from her consciousness.

Ranko bit her lip, wrapping her arms around her breasts and bracing for discomfort. “As I’m gonna be.”

Akane turned the knob slightly to the right. To her, the water was still cold, if no longer unbearably frigid. Blocking the focused jet of water with her back, Akane took hold of the shivering girl with whom she shared the shower. “Okay. One. Two. Three.” Akane stepped backward once, pulling Ranko into the path of the water.

Ranko whimpered at the sensation of heat she perceived from it courtesy of the Full-Body Cat’s Tongue. After a second or two, Akane stepped forward again, blocking the water with her back as Ranko tried to regain control of her breathing.

“Do we keep going,” Akane asked gently. Receiving a resolute nod in reply, Akane reached behind her and turned the knob a bit more to the right. To her perception, the water was now just slightly above body temperature, like tepid bathwater. Again, Akane took hold of Ranko’s slippery body, holding her tight. Whereas the last attempt had been uncomfortable for her love, Akane knew this one would be painful. “Ready, beautiful?”

Receiving another nod of determined approval, Akane tightened her grip on Ranko’s wet form. “Okay. One. Two. Three.” She again stepped backward to pull Ranko into the path of the pulsating water jet, and the slender girl in her arms writhed in pain.

“Owww! FuckfuckfuckFUCK! Owwww!”

Akane stepped forward, eclipsing the water stream again with her back and braving a smile as she brushed a wet strand of flame-red hair out of Ranko’s eyes. “I know it hurts, baby. I’m sorry. That felt kind of warm to me. I don’t know if it would’ve been warm enough to have made the change happen before, but so far, so girl. Maybe we’d better stop. That last one sounded really bad.”

Backed all the way against the tile wall, Ranko stared at the translucent resin knob behind Akane’s back with dread. She knew what had to be done, much though she wasn’t looking forward to it.

“Turn it up all the way.”

Akane shook her head. “I can’t! It’ll hurt you too much! We don’t need it that hot, do we?”

“Akane… do it.” Ranko wrapped her arms around her breasts again, hugging herself tight as Akane shook her head, reaching behind her and pegging the knob to the far right.

Akane enveloped Ranko in her arms again, and even the droplets of water cooling as they traveled around her body felt like hot lava as they made contact with Ranko’s skin. Akane could barely stand the water temperature; she could not fathom how Ranko would. “You’re sure about this?”

Ranko nodded sternly, not answering verbally due to her tightly clenched jaw.

“Okay. One.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

Akane stepped backward, closing her eyes and hugging Ranko tight against herself. She wished she had free hands to cover her ears and muffle the agonized, wordless wail that emanated from the trembling young woman in her arms and echoed in the tiny tile alcove. Ranko buried her face against Akane’s shoulder, her open lips touching her flesh as she tried in vain to mute her cries. But however much the woman in Akane’s arms was screaming, a woman, it still was.

My gods. It was real. It happened. I don’t know how, but it did. What am I going to do? What am I going to say to her? My poor love. How cruel for this to happen to you, today of all days! It’s not fair!

Akane started to step forward, but a half-shrieked plea halted her. “Not yet!”

She held her lover tightly in the path of the torturous water jet, praying for all the strength she possessed to pass through her arms and penetrate into Ranko’s heart. But much though every decibel of her bride’s screams sliced through her soul like a hot knife through butter, Akane held fast. I’m so sorry, Ranko. I love you.

Ranko writhed in her arms for nearly ten seconds before Akane could bear her cries no longer. Akane stepped forward again, releasing Ranko safely out of the path of the water. Ranko’s skin was bright red from being scalded twice in as many hours, but otherwise, there was no discernable change to her appearance. Akane reached behind her to turn the water off, and before she could swivel back to face her again, Ranko had slid down the wall until she was seated in the bathtub. Adrenaline and agony combining to overrun her nerves, Ranko quaked violently as she looked up to Akane and wrapped her arms protectively around her brutalized body.

“Ranko, honey, I’m so sor…”

Akane’s distraught, pitiful platitude was cut off mid-word by a voice too overpowered by pain shock to register any other emotion.

“I’m… I’m… I’m free.”

Akane blinked. Did you… actually want this? I know you didn’t want to live as a boy again, but to lose the option? Are you sure about this?

Akane stepped out of the shower first, dripping on the lavender bath mat as she took a large fluffy towel from the bar mounted to the wall. She approached the bathtub again, wrapping the soft cotton around Ranko’s body and beginning to towel her skin dry while she still sat in the tub. She tried her best to be gentle, as she knew the poor thing’s nerves were cranked up to eighty on a scale of one to ten, and she had to be absolutely miserable.

Ranko hid her face in the fluffy towel. She ached from head to toe, but other feelings dominated every corner of her mind. I’m a woman. Not a boy who turns into one. Not a freak. Not some weird chimera thing. I’m a woman. For real. Forever. Thank you, gods. I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but… I can’t explain it any other way. That’s why it happened today. It’s you telling me that me and Akane are meant to be, exactly the way we are. Thank you. Her heart felt like maybe she could fly, and was half-tempted to try just to see if any other miracles had been bestowed upon her in her sleep.

Indeed, Ranko did whimper as her mind warped over the possibility and Akane gently dried her skin, but she did not do so in the way Akane expected. Flushing bright crimson, Akane looked down into her eyes. “After everything, are you actually…”

The redhead blushed under the lavender towel. “I’m all naked, and you’re rubbin’ all over me, and we haven’t played all week, and I’m thinkin’ about the fact I’m gonna marry you in a few hours and get to be yours, like this, every day for the rest of my life. I mean, I still hurt everywhere, but otherwise, what did you expect?”

Akane beamed. She was shocked that Ranko seemed to be taking the momentous surprise in stride, but the more she thought about it, the sillier she felt for doubting it. It had been ages since she’d seen any inkling of masculine behavior from Ranko, discounting the few weeks where she’d boarded up her heart in preparation for Genma’s first attack. There was a part of her that was saddened by the potential closing of that door, for one reason in particular she didn’t dare bring up with her partner and interrupt her euphoria, but that was tomorrow’s problem.

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“I expect you to be a good girl and wait until tonight.” Akane kissed her neck softly, eliciting a loud gasp from her lover. Though her skin still radiated pain everywhere from the heat, Ranko’s nerves were firing as hard as they could, amplifying every sensation even further than usual. “And I promise, I’ll make it worth the wait, Mrs. Tendo.”

She stroked Ranko’s still-damp hair, sighing with an unpleasant thought that she knew she had to share even if she didn’t want to. “Look, I can only imagine how crazy this feels for you right now. Just… try not to get your hopes all the way up yet, okay? This could still be a fluke thing. Maybe not, but… don’t count on it a hundred percent just yet, alright? I don’t want to see you disappointed.”

Ranko shrugged. “I mean, we just proved I can’t do hot water whether it’ll change me or not, so I don’t think I’ll be running to the nearest Jacuzzi either way. But gods, it would feel so good not to have to be scared that I’m going to spill a pot of dumplings and you’re going to walk in the front door to find a boy in a dress in our kitchen.”

Akane nodded. “You know it wouldn’t matter to me if I did, right? Even if that happened, you wouldn’t turn back into Ranma. Not in your heart. You’ve changed where it really matters, sweetheart. I’m so proud of you. You just have no idea. I don’t know how I’m ever going to tell you enough.”

Ranko blushed, not that it was easy to tell given how red her skin already was from the hot water, as she remembered something she’d written just before all hell had broken loose earlier that morning. “Somehow, I’m betting that later this afternoon, you’re gonna find a way to let me know exactly what you think of me.”

Akane wrapped her arms ever so gently around Ranko, and Ranko extended the towel around her shoulders to encase Akane’s still-dripping form in it as well. The elder bride sighed contently in Ranko’s arms. “Ranko Tendo, will you marry me?”

Ranko smiled softly, blushing at Akane’s casual reiteration of her proposal and whimpering at the feel of Akane’s hands rubbing her through the towel on her lower back. “You bet your ass I will. In fact… I’m gonna marry you today. Let’s do this!”

Akane finished drying as Ranko stepped past, slipping into a soft cotton bathrobe in a shade of lavender that matched the duvet cover and most of the bathroom linens. Ranko took a white robe down from a hook on the back of the bathroom door, offering it to Akane. The taller girl donned it, and the two girls made their way out to the bedroom portion of the tiny studio apartment where they had spent their first night together as girlfriends, as well as their last.

Ranko sat down on the bed, crossing her legs underneath her. “I’m not really sure what to do. Like, should I get dressed, or do you think Izzi wants me to stay like this until she gets here?”

Akane did not acknowledge what Ranko said. She was entirely lost in her own thoughts, eyeing the woman she was hours from marrying with boggled thoughts and total adoration. She was startled out of her daydreaming haze by a gentle rapping at the apartment door.

Visually checking that both her robe and Ranko’s were tied tightly enough to prevent them from being indecent, Akane called out. “Come in!”

The door opened, and Kasumi waved from the doorway without entering. Somehow, after having spent just over an hour dealing with the macabre scene downstairs, there was still a chipper merriment about her. “How’s everything going in here,” she asked softly.

Akane nodded, not wanting to say too much about Ranko’s curse out loud with the door open in case the other Phoenix sisters had begun to arrive. “We’re okay, I think.”

Kasumi beamed. “That’s wonderful to hear. I hope you’re both getting excited! Anyway, with everything that happened earlier, I thought it might be a good idea to invite my date for the wedding to arrive a little early.”

Ranko slid to her feet. Date? Did she really… Her face lit up in a bright smile as Kasumi stepped out of the doorway to admit Dr. Tofu Ono, clad not in his usual black gi, but in a dapper gray suit with a white dress shirt and a lavender tie ostensibly chosen to match the bridesmaid dress Kasumi had yet to change into.

“Dr. Tofu! Gods, it’s been ages!” Ranko waved, a bright smile in her eyes and on her lips. “How have you been?!”

The young doctor smiled warmly at his long-absent patient. “Hello, Ranko! Things are…” He looked up at Kasumi with a soft smile, even as Ranko took a step back for fear of her spinal column. “Things are wonderful. I’d ask how things are going for you two, but given that there’s a wedding dress hanging up over there, I’d guess pretty good, this morning notwithstanding?” He laughed merrily as Akane hugged him from the side. “Hey there, Akane. Good to see you! Kasumi tells me you’re in school for chiropractic medicine?”

Akane beamed proudly. “Yes sir! Just like you!”

“That’s really great, Akane. I’m honored, and if you ever need any help with training or recommendations or anything, please, give me a call.” The doctor pulled up one of the wooden dinette chairs, setting it in front of the bed and turning it backward before straddling it.

“I gotta tell you, Ranko,” the young doctor said through an amused smirk. “You should have seen my face when Kasumi told me that the girl that sang some of my favorite songs was a former patient of mine. I never would have guessed!”

Ranko blushed, grinning widely. Doctor Tofu? A Firebird? How freaking awesome is that?!

Dr. Tofu turned to Akane with a disarming smile and a knowing bob of his head. “And I guess that means you were the sneak, huh?”

“Look, in fairness,” Akane said, blushing furiously. “I’m gonna marry her today in front of everybody I know. So at least I’m a recovering sneak!”

“Fair point!” The doctor turned his gaze with a laugh back to his patient. “So, Ranko. I understand there was an… incident today with your curse? Wanna walk me through it?”

The redhead grinned in appreciation and understanding. Kasumi’s a friggin’ genius. She knows how much research he did on Jusenkyo when he was trying to help me fix the Cat’s Tongue, and we can trust him to keep it quiet.

“Well, Doc, first off let me say, I haven’t been… what I used to be… in almost two years now. Not even once. I’ve been so, so careful. And then today, when Pop threw the kettle at me… nothing happened. I just got out of a hot shower, and same thing. No change. For the life of me I can’t figure out why, but I think I might be…cured somehow?” She fidgeted on the foot of the bed, sitting cross-legged and looking up at the doctor with a hopeful expression.

The chiropractor nodded sagely. “And the Cat’s Tongue?”

Ranko shrugged. “Same as it always was. Still super sensitive to temperature, texture, touch, everything.” She blushed as Akane caught the corner of her eye. “Everything.”

Kasumi flushed furiously, hiding her face behind her hand as she gazed out the window, looking out for more of the girls’ wedding party. After two months of dating, her boyfriend had reached a point where he could interact with patients in her presence without hurting them, so long as she didn’t involve herself too much in what he was doing. Ranko had been through enough physical trauma for one wedding, though.

The doctor smiled knowingly, but didn’t react much beyond that. “Okay. And have there been any other changes since I’ve seen you last, that I might need to know about?”

Ranko shook her head. “Not really. Pretty much exactly the same girl I was when I first got the Cat’s Tongue.”

Akane cleared her throat, taking Ranko’s hand as she sat on the bed next to her. “Not exactly, Ranko.” Ranko’s puzzled face turned crimson a few seconds later as she realized what Akane was referring to, and she shrank a bit into her lavender robe like a turtle retreating into its shell. Akane gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s okay. We need to tell him, baby. He’s a doctor, and a friend. He can’t help if he doesn’t have all the facts. Would it be easier if I told him?”

Ranko nodded vigorously, still fully flushed. “Please?”

The doctor looked up to Akane expectantly. “So, what’s up?”

The elder of the two brides put her arm supportively around Ranko. Now that it was her responsibility to say it out loud, it was a little awkward for her, too, but it needed to be done for all the reasons she’d just quoted to her fiancee. She finally spoke, but kept her voice down. “She, um… she had her first period about a year ago, and pretty much regularly since.”

Dr. Tofu nodded contemplatively as Ranko shyly buried her face in Akane’s robe. “Well, that certainly is interesting. Ranko, I understand this is all pretty awkward to talk about, and I’m sorry to have to ask you this stuff. Thing is, I don’t recall ever reading about an instance of that happening to someone who had a curse like yours. There might be something to it. But, you seem physically fine otherwise. Other than the usual Cat’s Tongue stuff, do you feel alright? Is everything else okay with your…” He gestured to her lower abdomen, and Ranko got the hint.

Ranko couldn’t believe she was about to talk about… girl stuff like that with any guy, but especially one she’d known and respected for so long. “I… think so? I feel fine, and I don’t know what it feels like down there for any other girls, but I think it’s normal. Akane’s never called me out on anything she noticed out of the ordinary or nothin’. And, I mean, I’ve taken my share of hard hits and stuff, going back to before all this, but nothing I can think of that jumps out at me.”

Again, the doctor nodded, as if mentally taking notes of everything the girls told him. “And I presume you two are… you know…”

It was Akane’s turn to blush, but Ranko was the one that emphatically answered. “Oh, yeah.” She grinned playfully to her left, watching Akane crumble in real time as Ranko admitted in no uncertain terms to the man she’d once had a crush on that the pair frequently had, and quite enjoyed, sex together as two women. “As for whether or not that’s normal… let’s just say with the Cat’s Tongue, it’s… a little different for me.”

The doctor’s eyes widened as he put together what Ranko was telling him. Welp, that’s a mental image I didn’t need today. “But, not bad different?”

Ranko flushed, but took an almost sadistic pleasure in the fact that Akane was even more flustered by the line of questioning than she was. “Only for our neighbors.”

“Oooo-kay!” Dr. Tofu chuckled awkwardly, ruffling his hair before standing and pulling the chair out from between his legs. “I don’t have any answers for you, Ranko. Not right now. I can try to research things for you, but my question is, do you even want me to? You don’t seem especially upset by this turn of events.”

“I… I want to understand why it happened, Doc. And I want to know if this is a fluke or a new normal. But…” Ranko looked to Akane timidly for reassurance and received a soft smile and a slow nod in response. Ranko exhaled deeply. She was going to have to say it out loud. She was going to have to ask for something she only recently had fully admitted to herself. Something she never thought would be within her grasp.

“I don’t want you to fix it. I want… I wanna stay like I am. I wanna be a girl forever.”