The Journey is the Destination Chapter 9 By poetheather Ryoga is clearly upset and Ranma is at a loss for how to respond. Nabiki is sneaking around some more, trying to get to the bottom of this and only ice cream can save the day.

With a slide to the side, she dodged the attack Ryoga launched with his umbrella, which was a simple thrust. Given how Ryoga normally reacted, there was almost no way she could get out of this without a fight. She was so tired of this and she wanted to stop fighting Ryoga. Wasn’t he her friend? Why did he always attack her? Surely, they had dealt with the damn bread issue and the accidental knocking of him into Jusenkyo. Ranma dodged again, propelling herself into the air, trying to get some distance. She had no idea what to do. Was everything going to fall apart right now? “Ryoga, stop!”

“Not until I have killed you. I live in Hell all because of you, Ranma!” Ryoga stretched his arm back and flung his umbrella at her, spinning it quickly towards the redhead. She shifted to the side and it flew past harmlessly.

“Ryoga, please stop.” Ranma kept fighting the urge to attack back and it was getting more and more difficult the angrier that Ryoga got. She dodged an attack of bandanas and the return of the umbrella, wanting to punch pig boy in the face. Maybe just this once it would be okay?

Akane ran up and stood in front of Ryoga, holding her arms out to somewhat block things. It got the larger boy to stop. Akane yelled out angrily, “What are you doing?!”

“I am getting rid of this pervert for you!” Ryoga’s eyes bored into Ranma and the redhead remained in stance, ready to move. She had gotten a lot better at dodging ever since Happosai had entered her life, not that the skill helped much with the freak.

“Leave Ranma alone! She doesn’t want to fight you!” Akane’s eyes flashed dangerously and her fists were clenched. She couldn’t allow this to go on or everything would be ruined.

“He is such a… wait, what did you say? She?” Ryoga looked dumbfounded and let his body relax completely, turning to face Akane entirely.

Ranma relaxed a little, but she did breathe a sigh of relief that Akane was able to keep this from escalating further. She watched the scene unfolding in front of her between her tomboy and P-Chan, wondering how that was going to play out. The relief started her crying and she sniffled a little. She didn’t fight it because it would work for her right now and so the embarrassment was worth it.

“Yes she you idiot. Ranma is a girl. I know you get lost all the time but I never thought that you would lose your mind. You know she’s a girl.” yelled Akane, pointing towards the crying redhead.

“Uhm… Akane… Ranma’s a guy.” replied Ryoga, wondering what Ranma had done to Akane to make her forget something so basic. It had to be all Ranma’s fault because everything was somehow Ranma’s fault. It had to be Ranma’s fault that Ranma was crying right now, right?

“Honestly Ryoga, what is it with people believing that? Have the Amazons gotten to you?” Akane looked at him worriedly.

The Lost Boy blushed slightly and looked down. This was making him confused. This might not be Ranma’s fault? It might be the Amazons fault? Surely not, as Ranma was the ultimate source of suffering and pain. But there she was, standing there crying, wiping the tears from her face and he felt sheepish.

“Look Ryoga, we are going off to go shopping for Kasumi so we can’t stay. Talk to you later, if you can get your act together.” Akane walked forward and took Ranma’s arm and led both of them off towards the market and away from the Lost Boy.

Ryoga stood in the street, watched the two girls walk away from him, and tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

* * * * *

Nabiki knew she didn’t have a large window of opportunity here so she raced over to Sayuri’s, desperate to get a better idea of things from a direct source. She made it there in record time, at least for her, and was soon standing on Sayuri’s front porch, panting slightly. When she had caught her breath she rang the doorbell and waited.

After talking to the girl’s mother briefly and waiting again, Sayuri came down and looked surprised to see the middle Tendo sister waiting for her. Nabiki smiled in her best friendly manner and called out to her, “Good morning Sayuri, may I speak with you?”

“Certainly Sempai. How can I help you?” She asked the upper classman.

“I was just trying to figure out what had happened between you and Akane the other day? I heard that she attacked you. Did my sister really do that?” Nabiki smiled, trying to come across as a confidant.

“Well, I guess I upset her when I was teasing Ranma.” Sayuri looked down, as if embarrassed by what she was saying.

“You were teasing Ranma?” asked Nabiki carefully. Now they were getting somewhere. This could turn out to have been a good plan after all. “About what?”

Now Sayuri blushed and couldn’t meet Nabiki’s eyes at all. It was clear from the girl’s body language that this embarrassed her. “I… I was teasing Ranma and calling her a freak because… because she is afraid to use tampons.”

Nabiki swallowed, trying to keep the surprise off her face. This was not what she had expected. This was something completely different. “You were teasing her over tampons?”

After a quick nod as an answer, Sayuri replied, “I know it has to do with her Dad, but since most of us in our class use tampons I figured that it was an easy way to tease her. I had no idea it would upset Akane so much.”

“Wha… what did you say?” Nabiki was sure that it had to have been over something else but she had nothing to prove it one way over another. This was frustrating.

“Do I have to tell you? It’s so embarrassing and I feel bad about it.” Sayuri was a bit pink in embarrassment.

“Please.” Nabiki had to know. There might even be a clue her in what had to be a lie.

“Well… I asked her if the reason that she was afraid to use tampons was that she was too embarrassed to have sex.” Sayuri mumbled the last bit.

Nabiki blinked. Sayuri had asked that? Really? But that didn’t make any sense because Ranma was a boy, so there was no reason to ask that question. It wasn’t like he was going to have sex with a boy. “Surely you didn’t ask that?”

Her voice was quiet when Sayuri answered, “I… I did. Akane got pissed off and slammed me against the wall. I guess I was just afraid of Ranma taking away my best friend. They have gotten so close lately.”

Nabiki was frustrated. This wasn’t helping at all. It was only confirming what she knew wasn’t true and that did her no good. She was trying to get things to make Ranma tell the truth, not to get things that twisted the truth into this lie. She was certain that Ranma was a boy and she would find out why he was doing this. “Well, I think she might be over it. She didn’t seem angry this morning. You wait and see. I’ll try and make sure that it is all okay. Thank you.”

Nabiki bowed and left, rubbing her forehead, as her headache was coming back with a vengeance. She took two aspirin and headed home, desperate for a new plan.

* * * * *

After dropping off the vegetables and stuff that Kasumi wanted, Ranma and Akane headed over to Sayuri’s, where Yuka was waiting for them. The plan, at the moment, was to go get ice cream and to do some shopping. Ranma was a bit worried about that, as it did embarrass her to look at girl’s clothes but maybe this would help her get used to that? She didn’t know if that would actually work but she was willing to try. It wasn’t like she had any real idea how long this plan was going to take to work, so she wanted to have enough stuff to last.

So far, this girl thing was mostly working the way she had hoped. It hadn’t stopped Ryoga from attacking her, but then again, very little did. It did seem to be working on Pops and Nabiki, which would help a lot and she was a lot more worried about the Amazons than she was with Ryoga. Cologne was far too tricky and on top of things than most anybody else in Nerima. Then she realized that at some point Happosai would have to be dealt with as well. Would she ever get this insanity calmed down enough to ever go back to being male all the time?

Once the four girls were seated in their booth at the back of the ice cream parlor, Akane turned to Ranma, “Why didn’t use what we discussed on how to deal with Ryoga?”

“I didn’t have time to. He attacked so quickly that there really wasn’t time for me to fall to the ground and start crying. He could have really hurt me if I hadn’t have dodged.” Ranma defended her actions, even though they hadn’t gone according to the plan.

“It’s just that Ryoga is such a sucker for tears that it should have stopped him.” stated Akane.

“I know, but he also doesn’t think about things and just dives right into action. Those first few attacks would have hit me if I hadn’t done it the way I did. And the umbrella is heavy.”

“What is his deal anyway?” asked Yuka.

“I don’t know.” shrugged Ranma. “At first I thought it was about bread, then it was about something else, but we have fought together so many times that I kind of thought that he had gotten over the whole wanting to kill me thing.”

“It sounds to me like he is jealous of you.” Sayuri looked thoughtful when she said that.

“You think?” This surprised Ranma, who would never have thought about Ryoga that way.

“It makes sense to me. For all we know, he could have the hots for Akane and is jealous that you have her.”

Ranma thought about that and about how Ryoga was in love with Akane. His big reason for being pissed today had to do with Akane. Was it really that simple?

“Ryoga is sweet, but I’m just not interested and attacking Ranma isn’t going to help him get into my good graces.” stated Akane. “I think we’ll have to come up with a plan to deal with that.”

The other girls then nodded. Then Sayuri informed everyone about what had happened with Nabiki that morning and what she had said. Ranma turned as red as her hair when she heard that and buried her face in her arms on the table. The idea that she might have to… to actually use those things made her stomach turn. But if she was a girl, then wouldn’t that actually be something she would be used to. That was not a pleasant thought. “Uhm…”

Talk at the table stopped and everyone turned to face Ranma, her face still buried in her arms down on the table. Akane asked, “Yes Ranma?”

“Would… would I actually have to use those… things?” She didn’t even look up to speak. And the word itself seemed dirty so she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

There was silence for a moment and then Akane asked, “You mean, tampons?”

Ranma nodded her head, still face down, feeling her cheeks burning. He had been so embarrassed ever since this whole thing started.

“Well, last night we did say that your father bought you some pads and you said that you wanted to try tampons this time.” explained Akane, trying not to enjoy the girl’s embarrassment.

“Oh Kami-sama!” groaned Ranma. “I’m not sure I can do this.”

Yuka said, “Ranma, I am sure you can do this. It is just something that happens for a few days each month and that’s it. No real worry. Don’t dwell on it or you’ll blow it out of proportion.”

“Ranma, think of all your fights, all the things you have done and try, try to tell me that a little blood over the course of a few days is really that bad?” asked Akane forcefully. She then lowered her voice and added. “I thought that Ranma Saotome never lost?”

Ranma snapped her head up, her eyes intense and was about to make a retort when the ice cream arrived. That put a hold on the conversation and everyone focused on their bowl of creamy goodness in front of them. Ranma calmed down by the time she finished her large gooey chocolate hot fudge brownie desert and so was able to say something polite. “Okay, I can do this. It is just disturbing, okay?”

Sayuri reached a hand over and rested it on Ranma’s. “It does bother us as well at the beginning, so you’ll just be going through something else all girls go through. That’ll just make you more of a girl.”

When Ranma winced, she continued and said, “I thought this was what you wanted?”

Ranma took in a ragged breath, her heart beating quickly as her body wanted to deny everything that was being said and everything she was doing. She swallowed and sighed, “I do want this. So far, this has been a successful plan and I like that. With the exception of Ryoga today I have avoided any combat except for sparring Akane. Things do seem to be calming down as far as I can tell.”

“Then just relax and go with things. We will be here to help you through it all. That what girls do. Guys seem to think they have to tough it through alone, or it wouldn’t be manly. But girls try to stay together and help each other through things. Guys try it alone, girls do it in teams.” said Yuka.

Ranma nodded. That did make sense to her based off what she had seen. Even the three fiancés would team together faster than Ranma would with Ryoga and Mousse, unless a cure was on the line. She was so used to having to fight about everything on her own that turning to anyone else for help seemed odd. But then again, her idiot father thought that Ranma should be able to deal with everything all on his own. So maybe she could go against her father and do this with a little help from her friends? “Okay. Can you help me through this?”

Akane snickered a little and said, “What’s this? The great and powerful Ranma Saotome, man among men, is asking us poor weak little girls for help?”

Ranma narrowed her eyes and glared at Akane. “Hey! I’m just Ranma right now and I am most certainly not a man.”