The two martial artists walked side by side each other; Ryoga's hand still annoyingly being detained against his will by the ever persistent Ranma; currently in his female form. He had changed back into a girl after their day in school was over.

Ranma, Ryoga noted, was continuously looking over her shoulder every few seconds, he assumed to see if Kuno would jump out and try to strike at them. She really didn't want to be her male form right now, or she'd most likely have to deal with the unrelenting bokken wielder. She hadn't even noticed... or cared if Ryoga was gritting his teeth in frustration at her antics. At first, this whole act had been rather odd, then it had become creepy, and now finally it was just down right annoying.

"So, mind telling why you're still holding onto me...?" Ryoga growled, trying to take relaxing, calming breathes of air to ease his enraged nerves.

It wasn't helping.

Checking their surrounds again, she ignored the question until she felt it was safe enough to talk without any possible interference, "Ya know how I told that pervert, Kuno, to go to the outskirts of the district? Well, I started thinkin', and if I know em' at all, he probably paid someone to drive him there or something. So he'll probably show up soon askin' what gives." Ranma replied.

"No!" Ryoga shouted, shaking his head, "I meant why are you still clinging on to me?

"Oh… Well, if he comes back around, he needs to see that I'm still with you... stupid." rolling her eyes while shaking her head she loosened her grip on him slightly.

Ryoga huffed and turned his head away from her, sick of having to be bound by some stupid vague threat. It wasn't right; did true martial artist let something as trivial as intimidation get in the way of doing what they needed to? He sighed, in this case, when it involved the love of a certain someone known as Akane, yes, it most defiantly did. "Alright, then tell me something..."

Ranma raised an eyebrow, what could he possibly want to know? "Tell you what?"

Pausing for a moment, the lost boy blushed a bit and cleared his throat, "Why did you kiss me on the lips yesterday?... Couldn't you just have done it on my cheek or something?"

Ranma formed a Cheshire cat smile on her face, oh this would be fun. "What? Are you saying you want something from me right now, pig-boy?"

Eyes widening, the lost boy turned to her and shot his hand forward, attempting to punch her for her insinuating remark.

Ranma ducked just in time, while still holding onto his other arm, "Nya!" she said, sticking out her tongue.

"Will you be serious for once you stupid jerk?" Ryoga scorned.

"Alright, alright...," the red-headed girl rolled her eyes, "I did it cause', I wasn't gonna' lose my chance at freedom...," she sighed, "Do you know what's it like being touched like that as a chick?"

"You're even weirder than I thought..." Ryoga huffed, rolling his eyes away. "Stop acting like such a girl, this isn't even your normal body."

"Why do you say that?... Are you actually thinkin' that it's okay for me to groped and touched when I'm a girl cause' it's not really my normal body?" Ranma glared, she couldn't believe how stupid he was being. This was a personal matter of hers; she just didn't want to be groped; was that so wrong? It felt like an invasion of her privacy.

"You're not even really a girl... why does it bother you so much?" Ryoga asked, staring at Ranma with a dull questioning look.

"It bothers me, cause'- cause' it's weird!" she blushed, but then realized something... "Why am I even telling you about this?" she shouted, letting go of his arm and crossing hers together.

"Because you're a cross-dresser who secretly likes being a woman..." Ryoga mocked; glad that the awkward air between them had deteriorated a bit.

Ranma's first idea was to reply with an insult of her own until she figured she'd do something much worse. Oh, she'd make him squirm, if she had to continue to endure this masquerade with Ryoga, then she'd at least have fun at his expense! "Well, I guess that could be one of the reasons... that or you don't want me to care because you wanna' touch me and stuff!" she smirked, her voice going cutesy again.

"W-What!?" Ryoga stuttered, blushing out of pure shock.

"Yeah, that's it, ain't it?" She said, after which she playfully leaned back over to the shocked and confused boy; batting her eyelashes at him.

The lost boy was so shaken that he leaned away, and took a step back. His face horrified at what Ranma was doing. "S-shut up, you idiot!" he exclaimed, but then found himself blushing even more furiously when Ranma placed her hand on his chest and leaned in.

"Whoa Ryoga... I didn't know you swung that way buddy..." Ranma chuckled, almost having a cat-like appearance to her; the way she looked right now would turn any other man into a drooling idiot. Sadly, this was Ryoga, the lost boy who absolutely hated the entire concept of Ranma Saotome.

Gaining enough sense to realize what was going on, Ryoga squinted his eyes shut and raised his hand up, his fist trembling in his wake for obvious reasons. "Damn you Ranma, prepare to die!" he exclaimed, making some distance for a fight.

The red headed girl was laughing her head off; just the image of pure shock and frustration he had was hilarious. "Yeah, you can try, Pig-Breathe!" she giggled and jumped to the side as Ryoga took a swing to her face.

Ryoga gave chase as Ranma lead them across town. She had some time to kill; after all, she could always stand to mess with Ryoga for a bit.

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Outskirts of the City

Kuno fell to his knees, panting, completely exhausted from running all day long. He was rich; he usually had people doing this kind of thing for him. "No mile is too much for me... no hill too steep, nor shall I rest or sleep, for my heart will continue to push to unyielding bounds!" he exclaimed, then realized he hadn't taken a breath after that little poem, and started gasping out a bit.

Panting a little less now, he paused and arched his head back. "Perhaps running such a large distance wasn't such a clever idea in hindsight..." he stated, then figured Ranma must've gotten away by now. Considering the amount of time it had taken him to figure that out, he should have felt a bit stupid, but a mixture of his thick skull and mild dementia shielded him. The blue thunder felt more like he had somehow accomplished something amazing, as he showed that he would go to unending lengths to be with the one he loved most... well, one of the ones he loved most.

"I'll cease my chase, and wait for another day... right now I must return home and rest." with that he stood up and turned around, beginning his long trek back home. Kuno would take his time, he was in no hurry to try and figure out his next course of action. He was still determined to get his pig tailed girl back.

"Perhaps a small trip to the district's park, it will allow a much more convenient passage to my manor."

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Near The Park

Both Ranma and Ryoga had given each other rather good thrashings. Neither of them looked like they were in very good shape, their cloths were tattered and torn. The two had already fought and were now once again walking side by side.

"So, where'd you say you leave your stuff at anyway?" the red-headed girl asked, her hair messed up from having fought for over an hour with Ryoga.

"The park," Ryoga replied, turning his head to her.

"Wha? Why there?" She asked.

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"I uh, don't want to talk about it." He replied, his eyes shiftily moving back and forth.

Flashback

Ryoga was simply just minding his own business; lost as usual, he wasn't really very tired or anything, all he was doing was trying to find his way back to Akane like always; and possibly, if luck was on his side, get the courage to finally tell her how he felt, then maybe, just maybe the world wouldn't be such a grim and depressing place anymore!

Of course, he wasn't having much luck in that department since he had just turned passed the same block at least seven times in the past hour or so. Lowering his head in defeat, he knew he wasn't going to find the blue-haired girl anytime soon, such as always was his fate.

"Akane... where are you?" he groaned, his hands firmly gripped onto his shoulder straps "More importantly, where am I?" He asked to no one in particular. His head tilted upwards to the sky, hoping the fates could provide him with an answer; that wasn't going to happen since it seemed they had a different plan for him all together right now.

Sadly he wasn't able to respond in time, when a random old lady, who oddly enough was carrying a ladle, appears randomly and splashed the lost boy with cold cooking water.

"Bwee!" P-chan cried; flailing his little legs in the air as he fell on top of his backpack, it had thankfully fallen before he did and served as a cushion to soften the blow, not to mention the fact that he was surrounded by his clothing to further deflect any harm. But like always, his yellow bandanna was stayed comfortably wrapped around him, although floating down on his neck, but it still managing to stay.

Poking his head out of his clothing, P-chan darted his head from side to side, that's when he spotted the offending old woman. The tiny piglet jumped out of his clothes, squealing at the elderly lady; most likely shouting something that was just far too graphic to be translated into a human language.

Seeing that his pig's yelping hadn't affected the woman, who ignored him and went back to doing her usual meanderings; which were unknown to the rest of the populace. "Bwe..." he dejectedly sighed, lowering his head in defeat. Deciding not to be too depressed by this, Ryoga stood up, knowing he had to find a place to hide his belongings and then change back.

What followed next was a small piglet dragging a massive traveler's backpack across the grass and hard ground. People would look and stare as the small oinker moved such a large object, some were too scared to even ask what was going on, and others figured that they had been hallucinating.

Ryoga, or rather P-chan in this sense, noticed the small group of gathering people, staring at him.

"Wow... that's a cute pig!" some little girl pointed out.

"Amazing... that backpack must be several times heavier than that little guy; he must be one tough porker!"

"Daddy... I want a pet pig like that!" a small boy cried, tugging at his father's sleeve.

"Sure! And when it grows up and isn't cute anymore, we can eat it!"

P-chan didn't like being watched like this while he did his business; yes, even in that sense. Letting go of his pack with his teeth, the small piglet turned around and narrowed his eyes, then started barking at them to leave... and by "barking" he meant he was actually just squealing in a really annoying way.

"WE! WEEE! WEEE! BWEEE!" He said, starting to jump up and down, hoping that it would intimidate them enough to make them leave.

"That'll do pig, that'll do." a little kid jokingly said, patting P-chan's head.

Ryoga just stopped and sat there, looking very annoyed, 'This is just degrading... I really hate this damn pig's body!' Ryoga thought, going back to the task at hand.

When Ryoga finished pulling it all the way to the park, he used his small pig body to push his bag under one of those weird cement tunnel things little kids would crawl under. The small piglet managed to stuff it in between the gape that connected it to the ground.

"Wee... wee..." the piglet panted.

"P-chan!" Akane shouted, going down on one knee and kneeling down to pick him up. "I can't believe it; I've missed you so much!"

"Bwee..." Ryoga sighed, leaning his head on Akane's shoulder, exhausted from having to hide his backpack.

End of Flashback

"Okay… but why didn't you just find some hot water and turn yourself back? ... Would'a made things a heck of a lot simpler." Ranma said, blinking a few times.

Eyes widening, Ryoga stopped dead in his tracks, and just stood there for a moment. "Uh, hey, P-chan? You okay there?" Ranma asked.

"Jus-just get me to the park okay? I really don't want to risk losing all my things." He answered back, continuing to move forward.

"Yeah, whatever you say..." Ranma replied, rolling her eyes. She had already figured it probably had something to do with one of his experiences as his cursed form or something. Though she wasn't expecting her enemy to tell her anything really deep, aside from the usual... 'Ranma you've put me through hell! All my pain, blah, blah, blah...' well, that's what Ranma heard from him most of the time anyway.

The two walked in silence once again next to each other, Ryoga following Ranma's lead all the way to the park. When they got there, Ryoga went to the spot where he left his things. Kneeling down he reached his arm out and grabbed it, and with a small amount of struggle pulled it out.

Ranma just to a seat on a bench nearby, deciding she'd wait for him there. "Hurry up already! It's getting late!" Ranma half-heartedly shouted though it sounded more like whining.

Grumbling Ryoga carried his backpack over to the bench, "I need to check a few things... sometimes some of my things end up missing…" with that Ryoga began is the boring task of checking every single thing in his bag.

Ranma sighed, 'Well, at least I got Ryoga all to myself now...' blinking a few times she shook her head. That sounded way too weird, not to mention it definitely didn't sound manly at all, "Gotta' stop staying in girl form for so long..." she whispered to herself.

"Huh?" Ryoga asked, confusedly.

"Oh! N-nothing!" Ranma blushed, she didn't know why she did it, but it was just weird that her mind slipped into thinking something suggestive about Ryoga of all people. 'That's just disgusting! Completely gross! I'm a guy! Besides, he's a complete pig!'

Ryoga shrugged it off as nothing, being that he really couldn't care less what was on Ranma's stupid head; all he wanted to do was protect his secret from Akane.

While the lost boy was going back to checking his things, Ranma's keen ears thought she heard the sound of footsteps nearby.

The self-proclaimed blue thunder of Furinkan High was getting closer to the park, "Oh... pigtailed girl, where for art thou Pigtailed girl..." he said, lowering his head in a dramatic fashion; though it was not like he knew how to do it in any other way.

Yeah, that was who Ranma thought it was and even though he hadn't said it very loudly, it was quiet enough for her to hear him. Shifting from calm and bored to alert and slightly afraid of being groped, she turned to Ryoga and hugged him from the side, "Aww Ryoga! You're so sweet!"

"Wha?" he screamed, a small blush going across his face. "Wh-what're you doing!"

Ranma's actions didn't sit too well with Kuno, who just happened to come at the right (or not so right) moment that Ranma hugged the bandanna-wearing boy, growling in frustration, he took his bokken and held it out in front of him. "You dare use your enchantment spells before me?" he said, with that he ran over to the two and brought his sword down onto Ryoga.

Ryoga, on the other hand, had turned his head just when he heard Kuno shout, so using his quick reflexes; he pushed Ranma out of the way, in order for him to avoid being hit, "Hey! Watch it!" Ryoga yelled.

On Ranma's side, she just leaned on the ground, though since she was used to falling it hadn't hurt all that much. "Yeah, you could've hit me!"

"Forgive me pigtailed girl... but I must free you from Saotome's accomplice!" Pulling his sword up, he turned to the lost boy, forming once again a defensive stance. "Have at thee!" he challenged.

"That's it!" Ranma announced, "I already told you ya, idiot! I'm with this guy!" getting up and walking over to stand in front of Ryoga. "Don't you get that, ya' jerk?

"Speak not... for your actions are not your own, as your words are untrue while under this peasant's curse!" Kuno mocked.

Ryoga for his part was stunned that all this was happening so quickly, although he was glad that he probably wouldn't have to fight, and that his backpack had only fallen to the side when Ranma hugged him. What really caught Ryoga off guard though was Ranma standing up for him against Kuno. The way Ranma spoke about being with him, it felt kind of… nice. Ryoga hand spent most of his life being alone, just wanting to be loved by someone, and to have a person actually come to his defense, to say that they care for him, it made the lost boy feel good about himself. That was, until the reality of the moment set in, and he realized it was actually Ranma Saotome saying those words. 'It figured, the only way I could ever get a girl to really say they liked me was if they were really a guy with a Jusenkyo curse.'

"Stop saying that! Ranma isn't a sorcerer or anything! You just don't wanna' listen because you're too thickheaded!" Ranma shouted, speaking the truth.

Kuno stopped short, it seemed as though some of her logic managed to slip past his defenses... for all of five seconds. "I see he's stronger than I could have imagined... my fair maiden, I promise I shall do everything within my power to set you free!"

Ranma gritted her teeth; she needed to do more than talking to him. "Yeah, w-well… we were making out before you came here, does that seem like something a stupid spell could do?" she stated, pointing to her somewhat messed up hair and clothing; of course for those in the know, they really came from the scuffle they had earlier, but Ranma quickly used it to her advantage.

"What?" Ryoga shouted, his mind threatening to shut down from the idea. The lost boy turned away and covered his nose in case he started to bleed from his nose at the thought.

"Lies!" Kuno countered, squinting his eyes shut before he turned around and made a mad dash to Kuno manor. "I shall hear none of these false truths! I will return!"

The redheaded girl glared at Kuno the entire time, slapping her forehead, she had to suppress the need to just chase after him and give the guy the pounding of his life. "Does he ever even think...?" she wondered aloud, but then looked towards Ryoga.

The lost boy held his head down, a depressed battle aura noticeably around him.

She tilted her head to the side, Ranma had to ask... "Is that blood?"

Ryoga turned his head away from her, his hair casting a shadow over his eyes.

"Ah, come on Ryoga... don't tell me you actually believed what I said?"

"It's not that...!" Ryoga replied, "It's just... I think...,"

"Y-you think what...?" she asked, her eyes widened; why was she feeling so nervous? It didn't make any sense….

"I think I like..."