Am I Pretty Again Ranma�s Declaration of Womanhood

One more chapter to go.

Feeling a little better today, thanks you well wisher.

Btw the reason why seeing Mousse being injured brought Ranma back was because his martial arts were locked from Ranko and he morphed forth to rescue him.

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Mousse woke up and feeling dizzy as he wasn’t used to the demerol that they’d injected him with to numb his pain. The first sight that met his eyes was Cologne; she looked so grim and muppet-like that he started laughing.

“Mousse wise up, I have some very important questions for you” she said sharply and then touched a pressure point on him to allow this to happen. Mousse sobered up immediately but didn’t feel pain, he looked at her questioningly. “Did you and Ranko make love?” she asked him.

“I don’t see how that’s your business?” he replied.

“It’s very important. I have to know if there’s a possibility that she might be pregnant. It would greatly benefit the tribe” she explained.

“I don’t see how my making love to my wife would benefit the tribe!” he retorted hotly at the private nature of the question.

Cologne went pale “what did you do boy?” she demanded narrowing her eyes at him.

“Nothing, we got married in the sense that we went through the motions. It wasn’t legal” he explained his eyes filling with tears at the realization that Ranko was truly gone.

Cologne frowned at him “you love her” she stated.

“Yes” he sobbed.

For once in her life she felt pity for the boy “I didn’t mean for that to happen” she said awkwardly.

Mousse looked at her sharply “what did you do?” he demanded.

“I knew that Ranko was falling for you so I encouraged her carnal interest in you. I didn’t know that you would develop feelings for her as well” she explained.

“But why would you do that? She was an innocent” he cried.

“How do you become an Amazon?” she asked.

“Either you marry a tribal member or you’re born into it” he replied and then turned white as a sheet. “You wanted her to become pregnant so that Ranma would join the tribe another way!” he hissed.

“Our tribe is too inbred, that’s why we depend on outsiders to bring new genes into it. Ranma’s a powerful warrior and will spawn lots of proud daughters in either form” she explained. “Shampoo’s getting nowhere with the male Ranma, but Ranko loved you and I thought we could use this to our advantage. I thought that your love for Shampoo would protect you” she said.


Mousse’s eyes grew as hard as marbles “so I was to be used as a stud horse in an effort to trap Ranma?” he said coldly. “You can’t stand me unless I can serve a purpose for you. I loved her and you played on those emotions”

“You did what a proper male should and followed orders very well. You will be rewarded for protecting Shampoo’s airen so well and should it turn out that you impregnated her, and then we shall let it be known that you’re the father of her child” she said, Mousse didn’t look impressed as he should. “Mousse you knew that she couldn’t stay, we need Ranma. Besides the way that she catered to your every whim was unnatural, you know the way things are supposed to be” she said softer.

“How things are supposed to be?” Mousse said with a bitter laugh. “She was nice to me, she treated me with respect and she loved me. How was that wrong? So I suppose that the way I’m supposed to be treated is: being ignored, ridiculed and abused?”

“Mousse you know your place” Cologne chided.

“Not anymore, she changed me. I don’t want your rewards. I would like to remain with you long enough to recover and then I’m going back to China with the kitten that we adopted. It’s not like I can take my wife with me. If it turns out that Ranma’s pregnant then you can tell him where to find me for retribution” he said.

“You are to remain. I shall even grant you my permission for you to marry Shampoo if you can ever manage to defeat her, you’ve finally proven yourself worthy of her” Cologne offered.

“I can’t stay here nor do I want to. Nor do I want to marry Shampoo anymore, I want Ranko! Do you think that I could stand seeing Ranma using her body to entice men and to cadger snacks? I can’t see her anymore, it would be too painful” he said and started sobbing in anguish. Cologne touched a pressure point that put him to sleep. Now she felt genuine sympathy and she wondered if there was someway that she could help him. She went back home to ask advice from the other Council of Elders members. She fired up her computer and went into their private chat room; the internet really had changed everything she marveled.

When Ranma got home, the first thing he did was announce that he was back. Once he’d managed to convince everyone that he was back to normal, he went to his room and literally tore off the clothes he had on. He was a little surprised by the couple spots of blood on the crotch of his panties and the soreness between his legs, but shrugged it off as women stuff. He noticed a silver ring on his finger, he noted briefly that it looked a bit like a wedding ring and took it off.

He frowned at his transformed room. His futon had hello kitty sheets on it and lace trimmed pillows. The walls had been decorated with oversized fans and lots of colourful scarves had been pinned to the walls. A vanity had been added to the room and the top was scattered with colourful hair jewelry and a couple of necklaces. The mirror had pictures crammed into the corners that featured Mousse. Ranma took one out and studied it, Mousse sat on the bleachers wearing a school uniform. His smile as happy and his long hair gleamed in the sun, he looked confident and relaxed. Ranma had never seen him like this. Realizing that the way the pictures were displayed was how a teenaged girl normally did her boyfriend’s, Ranma shuddered. He had so many questions and wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answers.

He took his bathing equipment and went to the onsen. He sighed as he dumped a bucket of hot water over his head and regained his true form. He looked down at his familiar body fondly and then stood up much taller then before. After a nice long soak in the furo, he returned to his room and tightly braided his hair. Once he was back into his regular clothes he felt as good as new. Then he went to find Akane to ask about Ranko. He’d become her once before and that brief time was frightening, he could only imagine what several weeks as her as had done to his reputation.

“She was a sweet, naive young girl who hated violence. She didn’t know any martial arts, so we asked Mousse to keep her safe from your enemies” Akane explained.

“What was the nature of their relationship?” Ranma asked suspiciously.

“They became inseparable friends and she had a crush on him. He seemed to like her too, but I doubt I went anywhere” Akane replied.

Ranma frowned at what might have happened to his body, he imagined Mousse touching him and almost puked. “Why would she like a guy?” he asked.

“She was very feminine, she loved kittens, embroidering, cooking and longed for marriage. It didn’t seem odd that she liked a male and Mousse’s a good looking guy” Akane explained with a shrug.

“She like c-c-cats?” Ranma asked nervously.

“She wasn’t like you at all Ranma” Akane said fondly. “We’re all glad that you’re back” she said. “Are you glad that you’re back?”

“Definitely” Ranma said, yet underneath it all he felt such a sense of sadness and loss.

A few days later, Mousse was brought home. Cologne watched him carefully walk up the stairs on his stiff knee and could tell that he was too proud to admit his pain. “I’m going to bed” he announced, even the brief trip had hurt his poor, abused body. “Shampoo you will help him get ready for bed” she ordered Shampoo.

Shampoo stiffened in outrage that she was expected to look after an inferior male. “Mousse can take care of self!” she protested, while Mousse looked surprised at the order.

“He got injured protecting your airen. You’re helping him” she ordered the irate Shampoo.

Shampoo cursed in Mandarin and stomped into his room ahead of him. Getting impatient with how long it was taking him to undo the frogs on his robe with one hand, she undid them herself and slipped it off over his cast. She did have to admit that the copious amount of bruising on his slim, muscular torso was a pitiful sight. She turned her back while he removed his pants and then handed him his pajama pants with her eyes closed. He used her shoulder to lean on as he eased them up his injured leg. “There you done, now go to bed” she said and turned to leave.

Mousse felt worse having Shampoo helping him, he could only compare Shampoo’s rude abruptness to Ranko’s loving patience when she’d nursed him. If it had been her, she would have helped him dress and undress so carefully. She would have fluffed his pillow, helped him into bed and fussed over him until she deemed him to be comfortable enough. Then she would have gotten him a pitcher of water and a glass to make sure he took his pain medication and another pillow to prop up his leg with. Then she would have sat with him until he fell asleep. “Can I have a glass of water and a pillow for my leg?” he asked Shampoo. She stomped off to grudgingly get them; tears ran down his cheeks as mourned his wife. He was a widower without a body to bury.

Cologne heard a knock at the door and opened it to find a police officer there “I’m here to drop off your friend’s stuff” he explained and handed her Mousse’s suitcase from that night. Curious, she opened it to find a diary with a rainbow on the cover. In flower trimmed kanji it read ‘this is the diary of Ranko Saotome; please give this to Ranma Saotome.’ She opened it to the first page and started reading ‘Hello Ranma I would like to introduce myself, my name is Ranko and I was born the day that Mousse found me unconscious in the street.......’

Mousse returned to work a few days later at his insistence, lying around made him feel sorry for himself, so with a stiff leg and only one hand he served customers. Cologne watched him; it was like a part of him was missing, like he was dead inside. Sure he was polite to the customers and served them correctly but preferred to keep the talking to a minimum. With Shampoo and Cologne he gave only one word answers and seemed to be avoiding them whenever possible.


With the exception of the night before, Shampoo had given him a package from Ranko that she’d forgotten about. It had turned out to be a bank draft for a large amount of money and a CD. He’d borrowed Cologne’s computer to watch it on and came out of her room crying. Cologne found that he’d forgotten it in the disk drive and watched it. It was a recording of Ranko; she sat in a chair and said to the camera. “Mousse, I’ve given you my savings so that you can have your operation and get those gorgeous eyes of yours fixed. It’s all there except for the ten thousand yen that Nabiki charged me to borrow her video camera. I have a confession to make and want to say this before I chicken out; I’m wildly, crazily in love with you. You’re probably going to say to find another guy because you’re already taken.....” she said and nervously tucked her hair behind her ears and then continued “but you’re the only man for me. I wish that you could feel the same, but I’m just as glad that you’re my friend. Now stop watching to this and call the clinic to set your appointment up. I want to be the first thing you see clearly after your operation” she admitted with a blush and then the CD ended.


Ranma had been flexing his muscles and eventually managed to convince people to forget about Ranko, though some of the guys kept saying how cute she was. He was back to normal, but kept getting flashes of depression when someone mentioned Mousse. Ranma hadn’t seen him since the hospital, he’d dropped out of school and had sent back Ranma’s uniform via Akane.

Ranma could have sworn that the other man was avoiding him. Finally he felt compelled to go visit the Neko Hanten. Ranma was surprised when Mousse barely even glanced at him when Shampoo glomped to him. He managed to shake her off and made a point of sitting in Mousse’s section. Mousse approached him warily “yo Mousse you feeling better? Bet you’ll be back to fighting me in no time” he said cheerily, wondering why he felt giddy in his presence.

Mousse didn’t, he couldn’t fight Ranma again as he might hurt him and by hurting him, he might hurt Ranko. “No I won’t, I’m leaving for China in a few days. Please look after Shampoo for me, she’s like a sister to me” he requested of Ranma.

Had Mousse suddenly started French kissing him, Ranma couldn’t have been more surprised. “But I thought that you loved Shampoo!” he protested.

“I thought I did to until I learned what real love was” Mousse replied.

“Well congratulations, is this lucky lady going with you” Ranma asked.

Mousse turned away from him “she can’t. I’ll go get your order” he said brushing at his tears.

Seeing him in pain, Ranma without thinking put his arms around him and pressed his cheek into the other boy’s cool hair. Both froze and blushed when they realized that customers were staring at them. Ranma hastily pulled away at the same time as Mousse whipped around as if struck by lighting. Ranma’s hand got stuck on a necklace around Mousse’s neck and Ranma stared in confusion at the silver ring threaded onto it, it looked so familiar to him. “Mousse I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me” Ranma said with a tomato red face.

He expected the other boy to hit him for his emotional display but instead he just looked longingly at him, as if searching for something in him and then said. “It’s alright, it wasn’t you” and departed for the kitchen.

“What was that about?” Ranma asked Cologne.

She handed him a book and said “you need to read this and then come find me” she said cryptically and pogo-ed away. Ranma blinked in surprise at the name Ranko Saotome.