The Journey is the Destination Chapter 27 By poetheather The Panda is up to his usual fun and games but is not quite ready for this fallout. In the immortal words of Kasumi, "Oh My!"

The figure crept along the side of the house silently, a small bundle wrapped in cloth tied on it’s back. It was nearly invisible, nothing more than a shadow that brushed against the house. Slowly it reached the corner window that was it’s destination and it paused, listening. The only sounds were the faint sounds of the garden, the distant late night traffic noise of Nerima and two sets of breaths moving deeply and smoothly within the room.

With great care the window was opened, undoing the latch and then easing the window slowly to ensure silence and just enough so that the figure could slip its considerable girth in without knocking anything over on the desk underneath it. The figure froze as the petite red head turned in the bed and clutched the girl with the short blue hair. The image of the two girls together was so cute that it warmed his heart. Through all the fighting and arguing and violence they had finally come together. The schools would be joined!

No! Genma shook his head to clear his head of such thoughts. He needed his daughter to be the man of his memories or else all hope of that dream would vanish like smoke. This wave of people saying that Ranma had always been a girl almost had him doubting his own mind, but he was a Martial Artist and had survived training under the feared Happosai, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that his daughter Ranma was a boy! Genma stopped his train of thoughts at that point and blinked a few times as he rolled things back. His daughter was a boy? Had she really been a girl the whole time? Was his memory of the cursed springs wrong? Did he need to rethink his plans?

No! Genma shook his head to clear his head of such thoughts. He was a man of action, a man of purpose. A Martial Artist without peer! He could choose the right course for his daughter and the girl she loved. He would make sure that the two girls would be happy together. Again his thinking hit a brick wall.

Ignoring his thoughts as useless things that all good Martial Artists abandoned, Genma unwrapped the bundle carefully and quietly. Despite all his attempts at intimidation, bribery, extortion, groveling and purchasing there was no water from the Spring of the Drowned Boy to e found anywhere. However he had found something, something that should serve his purpose well.

The plan was so simple, so elegant in its construction that even he would have trouble messing it up. His thinking ran like this, if he poured this container of Drowned Boy water on Ranma and nothing happened, then clearly she was still a boy. But if it turned her into a boy she was still a girl. The problem was, to spray the girl without triggering her unusually skilled defense.

The masterful part of his plan was that it was only the temporary water that one hot water dousing would fix, so if Akane got hit he would still be in the clear. There would be no harm caused by this act. The plan was foolproof. What could go wrong?

Carefully, oh so carefully so as not to make a mistake, he unscrewed the container, trying to make no noise. The best plan was to throw it onto the girl and see what happened. A fight would surely ensue, but that would not be all that important in the scheme of things. Knowing the truth would be the important thing. This precious water that he had done everything he could to obtain would reveal the truth and make his daughter be a boy again.

Genma tossed the water and immediately used one of his forbidden techniques to become invisible merely for safety reasons of course. In his haste to fade from sight, his aim shifted slightly. Also, at that exact moment Akane rolled over Ranma, shielding the girl’s body entirely from the water. The transformation was immediate and Genma almost groaned as he heard the sound of fabric tearing. Soun was large but this male Akane had broader shoulders and looked far, far more muscular than his friend had in his youth. Add that new muscle strength onto Akane’s existing strength and Genma decided that he really, really did not want to be on the receiving end of that one. His plan had failed utterly and it looked like he had only succeeded in making his beating more painful. This was not a good development.

In typical fashion he used the Saotome Secret Technique and fled into the night.

The responses from the bed were different however,. Splashed by the water, Akane woke with a yelp of surprise. The deep male voice surprised her and woke Ranma, who went wide eyed and eeped in surprise. Before Akane had a chance to explain anything, Ranma punched her in the chest, slamming her into the ceiling. The now naked and very male Akane was falling back towards the bed when Ramna noticed that Akane’s pajamas were ripped to shreds and jumped to the wrong conclusion. Her eyes burned with flame and her eyes narrowed.

The training she had just gotten helped Akane endure the Chestnut Fist that exploded into her torso but unable to stand and speak she merely collapsed in the corner, pummeled into near unconsciousness. Kasumi and Nabiki burst into the room, Kasumi holding a shinai in the ready position, ready to defend the two girls. The older sister took one look at the scene, with Ranma standing on the bed growling, the torn pajamas, and the naked young man groaning in the corner and she said the first thing that came to mind, “Oh my!”

Nabiki looked carefully at the young man lying there, as if taking his measure and then as realization hit she sighed in frustration, “Saotome.”

Ranma spat back indignantly, “I didn’t do nothing!”

“Not you, your baka father.” returned Nabiki with some heat.

After Nabiki said that, the room was utterly silent except for the occasional deep groans of pain from Akane. Ranma’s left eye began to twitch, her hands clenched and unclenched and her battle aura blazed around her brightly as she finally screamed out, “I’ll skin that panda alive!”

Genma ran faster.

Soun burst into the room, eyes wild, “What is going on here? Why is there a naked man in the corner? Where is my Akane?”

Nabiki turned and leveled her gaze at her father.She was clearly not amused. Soun flinched slightly from the steely glare but was doing his best to remain manly and in charge. He had an illusion to maintain, at least to himself. Nabiki spoke with very even tones so she would not be misunderstood, “That naked man is Akane father. Your so called friend doused her with Jusenkyo water.”

Soun snapped his head back and forth between Nabiki, Ranma, Kasumi and the still unconscious Akane, his face a mask of incredulity. Finally he stopped, gazing out the open window and did what he did best, burst into tears, founts arcing off him as he bemoaned his fate to the gods, “Oh Kamisama, my dearest Akane, cursed to be a man forever!!”

“Father.” Kasumi’s soft and sweet voice cut through the caterwauling like a knife through tofu. “Please tell me this was not your plan.”

Soun snapped his head over to Kasumi and blanched at the specific smile that graced her face. He had seen it before, but not on his daughter and when his wife had worn it, things never ended well for him. It had been that gaze that had saved him from Master Happosai. It was a gaze to be feared. There was no other recourse, he would have to forsake all his dignity in order to survive. It was the only way.

The tears burst forth like a damn giving way, he dropped heavily to his knees, hands clasped together in prayer, and he blurbled out, “I swear on your dear mother that I had no part in this plan!”

The smile changed ever so slightly at that and Soun knew he would live. He wept thankfully.

Ranma stepped down from the bed and bit her bottom lip, looking at Kasumi and Nabiki worriedly. What Nabiki had said was finally penetrating her sleep addled brain. She blinked at them and then turned to the lump in the corner. “Wait... I just beat up Akane?”

Both girls nodded.

Ranma frowned and rubbed the back of her head worriedly, “Man, what am I going to do to apologize to her?”

Just then signs of life came from the Akane lump, and he slowly straightened himself out, trying to rub the pain away from his chiseled chest. “Oh... what hit me?”

Akane’s eyes went wide when he heard his now deep male voice. Instantly his hands snapped to his throat. With a stunned look on his face he looked up at the ceiling and then down at everyone in the room and then registered their looks: Ranma was blushing a red almost as bright as her hair trying to keep her eyes from his groin, Nabiki was giving him the appraising look that clearly said ‘I can make money from that’, his father had a hand over his eyes and Kasumi had her face turned away and the tips of her ears were red. His older sister’s cough got him to realize how he was currently dressed, or rather how he wasn’t dressed. Akane blushed and dropped his hands to cover his chest and groin, crossing a leg over.

Kasumi took things in hand, saying, “Father, why don’t you take Akane and get him something to wear. Nabiki, go back to bed. Ranma, I will help you remake the bed.”

As that began to happen, amd naked Akane had left the room, Ranma began to seethe again. “I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna kill him.”

Kasumi laid a hand on Ranma’s arm, stopping her before her rant built up too much steam. “Ranma, perhaps we should wait and see if this change is permanent. We do know there is temporary water out there, so this might not be as major an issue as you fear.”

Ranma slumped some, as the adrenalin from the fight began to fade. She yawned widely. “I hope so Kasumi. I am not sure if I can love a guy but I will certainly try if it is her... uh... him.”

The smile Kasumi gave her made her feel better. They finished making the bed and Kasumi said gently, “I am going to put Akane in your old room Ranma, as it would not be proper for the two of you to sleep together right now.”

Ranma blushed again, and looked away. While she hadn’t thought about it yet, she was thinking about it now and the idea of a larger, more muscular Akane holding her held great appeal and her body responded positively to the idea. Kasumi left, a soft mischievous smile on her face, shutting the door and turning off the light.

More and more the idea turned through Ranma’s head, the image of a naked, male Akane lying there burned into her retina. The image of a naked, male and upright Akane lying in her bed giving her that smile she so loved. She was growing aroused as the vision took life in her mind and her breathing quickened. After she climbed under the covers, she loosened her pajamas and let her fingers play as her mind danced over the studly Akane.

Meanwhile, in another room of the house, Akane was lying there on the futon that Ranma used to sleep on, eyes wide, still stunned over what had occurred. He been as tall as his father and muscular, more so than even Ryoga. There was no way to deny the fact that he was a guy now, completely, with all body parts just dangling there. It was freaking him out. What if he remained this way? Would Ranma still love him? Would he become a pervert like those boys at school? What were they going to tell the school? What was he going to wear, Ranma’s old clothes? Did they even have shoes for his size feet? Would Ranma still love him? Would Ranma still be attracted to him as a male? Would he still be attracted to Ranma?

Akane decided to put that idea to the test. He thought about Ranma, about her lithe body, about how she moved, how gentle her hands were, how her hair smelt, how her body felt, how it felt to move his hands over that tiny but powerful frame, how amazingly she kissed, how they had done more than kiss. The direction of his thoughts were rather steamy and growing more so and more graphic.

There was a predictable response as his most recent body part rose to the occasion, spurred on by the train of thought. Akane’s eyes went wide in surprise and curiosity. He wanted to touch it, to feel that part of him, to see what it was like. It had always been a scary threat to girls and now he had one of his very own to play with as much as he wanted. Nervously Akane reached down and began to explore this new part as images of Ranma, clothed and unclothed danced in his now very male imagination. He almost began to drool in lust as he could see things so clearly.

Akane began to murmurer, as his breath got faster and faster, his voice gasping out, “I’m a pervert. I’m a pervert. I’m a pervert.”

All night the two horny teens were tortured with dreams of each other and neither slept much.