Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Living In Nerima ❯ The Truth About P-Chan ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: Will no longer be necessary.

Author's Notes: Don't you hate when authors don't just get right to the story? Heh. Well, this is the way I've always done it, so there ya go.

I must say I'm not crazy about the title I finally settled upon, so don't be surprised if it changes in the future. After a few chapters, if any of you have an idea for what could make a better title, feel free to suggest one.

Lastly, the first chapter was short, I know. I'm horrible like that. The first few chapters are "experimental," so to speak. In the real world, I'd go back and mess with them after the whole story was finished. But that doesn't work very well in this format if people want to read the story as it comes out, which I find they most often do. I probably will rework some of the earlier chapters when I'm done, but that's a good year down the road. Yes, I said a year. Maybe more. The story is that long. Or maybe I'm just that lazy….

THE TRUTH ABOUT P-CHAN

"What do you mean, `He's Ryouga?'" she asked again. He knew she was repeating her question because he'd heard her say something before, but in his momentary shock he hadn't caught what it was. He figured this was his last chance to cover his tracks. He removed his hands from his mouth and tried to fix the situation while he still could.

"I mean just what I said. P-chan is Ryouga." This time he jammed his fist in his mouth in mad panic. What the hell was wrong with him? The chances of Akane not believing him or dropping her line of questioning were dropping fast.

"That doesn't make any sense," Akane said. "How could P-chan be Ryouga?"

For a moment, Ranma just stared at her in disbelief. Could she possibly be that dense? It worked to his advantage of course, since if she couldn't figure it out then Ryouga's secret might still be safe, but it was mind-boggling.

"E fll nto a sprng t Jssnkyo," Ranma mumbled through his fist. Akane understood him though, and her eyes went wide. Ranma removed his fist and tried biting down on his arm instead. It was bigger.

"Are you serious?" She already sounded furious. All he wanted to do was escape before she found out how long he'd been hiding it from her.

"Crs I m." This time he pulled off his shirt and stuffed it in his mouth like a gag. He was backing towards the door very quickly, but Akane was advancing on him faster still.

"Ranma, do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds? First of all, why would he be at Jusenkyou?" she demanded. She reached up and ripped the shirt out of his mouth.

"He followed me to China," Ranma said. It was more of a whimper, really. He made a mad dive for the door, but Akane grabbed his ankle and he fell on his face.

"I know you don't like P-chan, Ranma," she stared coldly at him. "But this is not funny."

"It's the truth," he sniveled. By this point he'd given up on trying to stop himself from talking. For some reason he seemed incapable of hiding anything. He knew there had to be a reason for it, and his mind screamed that he knew what that reason was, but he just couldn't think of it.

"I'm going to take P-chan to the bathroom," Akane finally said. "You're coming with me, and I'll prove to you that he isn't Ryouga, and that you're just a jerk who for some stupid reason is jealous of a pig." She went back to her bed and picked up her little pet, who was still frozen in shock. She then stormed out of her room toward the bathroom. Ranma didn't dare not follow.

* * *

<I can't believe this> Akane fumed. <Why does Ranma hate P-chan so much? And why is he always trying to get rid of him? Ryouga with a Jusenkyou curse? That's got to be the stupidest story he's ever come up with.>

She made it into the bathroom and turned on the hot water in the sink. She hat to wait for it for a few minutes, just as she did in the mornings.

<But what if it is true?> She thought as the water heater went to work. <I take P-chan to bed with me every night! And I change with him in the room! If he actually is Ryouga…> She couldn't bear to finish the thought. Then another thought hit her. She spun on Ranma, who stood there like a little kid who'd been caught breaking the rules.

"If this is true, Ranma," she solicited, "why haven't you told me before?" She smirked, knowing that she'd successfully called his bluff. He probably felt pretty stupid.

"I promised Ryouga that I wouldn't," he said simply. "It's my fault he fell in the spring in the first place."

That was a surprise.

"That doesn't make sense," she stated simply. "You think it's your fault because he followed you to China, do you?"

"No, I accidentally knocked him in without realizing it."

Throughout the whole exchange, Ranma didn't shift or look up at her or even scratch the back of his head as he usually would do. He simply answered her questions detachedly and without hesitation. It was as if he were on some sort of truth serum or something.

Wait a minute. Truth serum? That wasn't right, but what about a truth…wish? She remembered making that wish. Had it come true? Could Ranma not lie?

But if that were the case, then he couldn't be lying now. And that would mean that P-chan actually was…no. That was just too ridiculous. But then why was Ranma acting so strange?

She had to find out if her wish had come true or not. But how? She had to think of a question - something that he would usually lie about - and then ask him to answer her.

That could wait. Steam was starting to come from the sink, so it was ready to pour on P-chan. She threw Ranma his shirt.

"Will he have clothes on when he changes back?" she asked simply. She was mocking him of course, but she didn't think he even realized it, because he kept right on going with his little game.

"I don't know," Ranma answered. "Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. I don't get it, really." He didn't put his shirt back on, so she figured he knew what she wanted him to do with it if the situation actually arose.

"Okay then," she said. She picked up the bucket from over by the shower, and filled it up with hot water from the sink. She heard Ranma gulp behind her as she brought the bucket out over P-chan. Ever so slowly she tilted it, watching as its contents spilled out over her beloved pet…and let out a scream.

* * *

She screamed as soon as he changed. He figured she would. Even though she'd been told about it, it was obvious she hadn't really been expecting it.

As partially anticipated, Ryouga had no clothes on, so Ranma quickly threw his shirt over the lost boy's naked form. The guy was still in shock. He hadn't moved an inch as P-chan since Ranma had first blurted out his secret, and he still was stiff as a board, eyes like saucers. His hands would twitch every so often, but in all honestly Ryouga wasn't the one Ranma was focused on.

After screaming, Akane had fallen backwards, and now resided on her rear on the bathroom floor, staring at Ryouga in disbelief. Tears were welling up behind her eyes. Ranma really did feel sorry for her. She loved that stupid pig so much, and she had always trusted Ryouga like a good friend. His pledge to Ryouga aside, he always worried about telling her for fear she'd take it just like this. It was one of the reasons he always tried to get her to figure it out for herself, rather than finding out some other way.

Then, just as suddenly as the skies of Nerima, Akane opened up and let the torrent flow. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. He was uncomfortable when girls cried, especially Akane. He figured he should maybe hold her or something and try to comfort her, but she was probably mad at him as well. Besides, she might take it the wrong way…

Akane's face collapsed in her hands and he deliberated no more. He dropped down beside her and wrapped his arms around her in what he hoped was a comforting embrace…and nothing more. She reacted instantly and buried her face in his chest as she continued to cry. He held her like that for an indeterminate amount of time while her sobs ebbed away into mere sniffles. When he finally looked up again, the whole family was surrounding them and Ryouga was still on the floor. It was at this time that Ranma realized the boy was not merely in shock, but had actually passed out, his eyes fixed open in fear.

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened here," Nabiki declared sardonically. Akane looked up upon hearing her sister and noticed everyone else in the room for the first time.

* * *

She felt so foolish. And her entire family had seen. Lord, half of them had even known all along!

It had been a half hour since she'd seen her favorite pet transform into the form of someone she'd thought was one of her good friends. Kasumi had come over and walked her out of the bathroom and downstairs to the couch while her father and Saotome-ojiisan got Ryouga some clothes and…escorted him out of the house (Nabiki was taking pictures). Apparently they had told him he could return later to apologize, but in a streak of wisdom that was rare for the two of them they'd advised him that it probably wasn't a very good idea at present.

The whole time Ranma had not left her side. For this she was both grateful and annoyed. While it was true that he was the one always trying to protect her from Ryouga (she had just realized that's what had always been the trouble between the two of them), it was also he who had kept the secret from her for so long. She had every right to be furious with him.

But right now she was feeling so incredibly humiliated that she just needed someone to hold onto, and he was just the right size…

"Akane-chan?" Kasumi was trying to get her attention.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Oneechan," she apologized, wiping the remainder of her tears away for what she hoped was the last time. "What is it?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were all right," Kasumi said. "You haven't said a word since it happened except for `Ryouga' and `P-chan.'"

"No, I'm all right, `neechan," she said. "It was just…a real shock, I guess."

"Nabiki said you put some kind of mental block on it," Ranma informed her. "Like your mind wasn't letting you find out, no matter how many clues were dropped on ya. I don't know if it's true or not, but it sure answers a lot of my questions, like how you never figured it out no matter how many times I tried to tell you."

"You tried to tell me?" She asked, turning to her left to look him in the eye. It made her feel better, at least, knowing that. At least he hadn't enjoyed keeping it from her, though that, hindsight was now telling her, should have been obvious. And she knew she could believe him, because her wish had obviously come true.

He looked at her for a moment, dumbstruck, and then slapped his forehead with the hand that wasn't circled around her waist.

"I tired all the time!" he said. "I could never outright say it, o'course, but I was always trying to hint at it so you'd figure it out. It was getting' to the point where I figured I'd have to hit you over the head and spell it for you."

Again she felt the conflicting emotions of anger and gratitude. She was upset because Ranma was all but calling her stupid, but at the same time confessing that he was trying to look out for her. It was very frustrating, to say the least, not knowing how she wanted to feel. But once again she gave into her desperation for comfort and didn't get upset with him. She hugged him tighter as the misery washed over her again as it had been at nearly regular intervals, and was comforted once more when he hugged back. It was an experience she would never admit to enjoying a week later, for sure.

* * *

The next morning came, and Akane promised herself that she wouldn't spend the day feeling sorry for herself. So she ate breakfast as she normally would, left the house with Ranma as she normally would, and was determined that she was going to have a normal day.

And normal on this day meant tormenting Ranma, since he was still bound to tell the truth about everything. Her mind was busy trying to come up with the best way to put this to her advantage as they walked to school, Ranma on the fence as always.

"Ranma?" she asked casually. She decided she'd start off by just teasing him.

"Yeah?"

"Who do you like better, Ukyou or Shampoo?"

"Ukyou." Right after he said it, he stopped short on the fence and made a sound akin to a hiccup.

"Hey, that's not funny, Akane!" he yelled indignantly. She couldn't help but giggle. She thought about asking who he liked better between Ukyou and herself, but then decided maybe she'd rather not know. Why should she even care, anyway?

"Stop laughing now, I mean it! You're the one who got me into this in the first place, you know. Can't you unwish it or something?"
"I don't think so," she said. "What's the big deal, anyway? So you have to tell the truth for a day, so what? They say honesty is important, you know."

"It's a big deal because I shouldn't have to tell people stuff if I don't want to."

Akane instantly felt guilty. She knew how much Ranma hated being forced into things. To make matters worse, it just so happened that people were constantly trying to force him into a lot of different things, and she was just adding to his problems.

"I'm sorry, Ranma," she said earnestly. "I won't make you tell me anything else, okay?"

"Okay," he agreed. "And don't tell anybody else about this wish of yours, all right?"

"I won't. But I'm not taking the blame for anything that comes out of your mouth today, either." They started walking again.

"It's weird though, y'know?" he asked. "I mean, I can't lie, but you didn't say anything in your wish about me having to answer when people ask questions, did you?"

Akane thought for a moment. "No, I didn't."

"Then how come I keep sayin' stuff without meaning to? I mean, I could just not say anything at all, and that wouldn't be a lie, right?"

"Have you tried that?" she asked.

"Course I've tried it! You saw me tryin' to cover my mouth last night, didn't you?" Akane blanked for a moment. Last night was still fresh in her mind, and being reminded of it brought it all racing back.

"Oh crap, I'm sorry, Akane!" Ranma sputtered. "I didn't mean to remind you of that!"

"No, it's okay," she waved him off as she fought to get her emotions back under control. "I did have it coming, I guess. And I really am glad I found out. It's better than going forever without knowing, especially considering how many other people did know. I can't believe my own father didn't even tell me!"

"I know," Ranma agreed. He jumped down off the fence to walk with her on the ground. "He and pops were usin' him to try and bring you and me closer together or something." Akane was surprised when Ranma stopped short again. She turned back to look at him.

"What is it?"

"I didn't even know I knew that," he said.

"What do you mean?" she asked, curious.

"Well, I didn't know they were doing that," Ranma told her, "although I probably shoulda guessed. This truth stuff is kinda weird."

Off in the distance, they heard the bell ring, announcing they had exactly one minute to get to class.

"Ranma!" Akane shouted as she turned and ran towards the building, him hot on her heels. "You made us late again!"

"I did!" he argued back. Well, he tried to argue, anyway. His tone of voice and his words didn't match up. Despite her frustration, Akane couldn't help but laugh.

* * *

Ranma managed to make it through the first half of the day without saying anything truthful. Though that was mostly due to the fact that he spent most of his morning either standing in the hall with buckets or asleep at his desk.

Lunchtime arrived however, and while it was usually Ranma's favorite part of the day, he was dreading it on this day. At lunch he would have to talk to people.

He tried to find a place to be by himself, but he was cut off by a crowd of guys who wanted to know what Akane was so angry about the day before, and why she was not the least bit angry with him now. Also, some of the girls wanted to know why Akane seemed depressed, (the guys hadn't noticed). Since she wasn't telling them herself, they figured Ranma was the next best person to ask.

"So why was she upset yesterday, Ranma?" Hiroshi asked. It was the first question Ranma could hear clearly over the babble.

"It was her birthday and I didn't know," he said. This got a shocked reaction from everyone, for even the guys knew that you didn't just forget your girl's birthday. It simply wasn't done.

"How did you forget something like that?" Daisuke prodded.

"I didn't say I forgot," Ranma snapped, "I said I never knew in the first place."

"You mean she never told you?" one girl asked.

"Or maybe you just weren't listening, huh?" another one sneered.

"Nobody ever told me," Ranma said, perhaps a little louder than he should have. "But we worked it out and she's not mad about it anymore, so stop buggin' me about it."

"So that's why she's not mad today then," Daisuke surmised. Ranma rolled his eyes. He tried to say "brilliant" in a sarcastic fashion, but nothing came out.

"Why's she so upset today then?" asked one of the girls from before.

"What do you mean?" asked Hiroshi, before Ranma could answer. "She looks fine to me."

"Hiroshi, you're an idiot," Ranma said bluntly. Then, before he could stop himself, he continued on to say "She's upset because she found out she's been sleeping with Ryouga without knowing about it."

The astonished cries of everyone who heard Ranma's declaration drew the attention of the entire remainder of the student population, including Akane herself.

"What do you mean she's been sleeping with Ryouga?" one girl shouted.

"I mean he's been sleeping in her bed, and she didn't know it." Ranma was desperately trying to escape, but the mob had him surrounded on all sides. They were so tightly packed he couldn't even jump away.

"How could she not know?" another girl exclaimed.

"Because Ryouga was…"

"RANMA!!"

The crowd parted in front of him, and Akane stomped up to him, aura blazing and fire in her eyes.

"Looks like she's mad again," Daisuke whispered to Hiroshi just loud enough for Ranma to hear.

"Akane!" he greeted nervously, his hands held up in front of him defensively.

"Ranma, you hentai! How dare you go telling everybody that!"

"You mean it's true?" one of the girls asked in disbelief.

"N-no, of course not!" Akane declared. Her hesitation and her blush were enough to cause some to doubt her word, however.

"Akane, could I talk to you alone for a minute?" Ranma asked. He then proceeded to grab her hand and pull her away through the opening she had made in the crowd while it was still there. The two of them easily outran the rest of the student body, and once they were a good distance away from the school they came to a stop under a tree.

"What did you have to tell them that for?" Akane sobbed. She moved her hand to strike him, but it was without her usual force and Ranma caught her hand easily.

"I couldn't help it!" he told her. "It was your stupid wish that did this to me, remember?"

"Well now what am I going to do?"

"You should've just let me finish," Ranma said, thinking of something all to late as usual. "If I'd told them that your pet pig was actually Ryouga transformed they wouldn't have believed a word of it."

"Do you think that will still work?" she asked, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. He shook his head.

"Not now. It'll look too strange."

"Well what do I do then, you jerk?" She was getting angry again.

"Gimmie a second!" He started to think.

"Hmph. Like anything you'll come up with will work."

"I don't hear you throwing out any ideas!"

"It wasn't my fault to begin with! Why should I have to fix it?"

"It was your wish!"

"Well if you hadn't gone out and gotten into a fight with everyone in town and missed my birthday, then I wouldn't have made that wish!" She got right up in his face for the last part.

"Oh yeah? Well if you hadn't been such an unceueuu…an unkyuuu…an unk-ky," he stopped and had to catch his breath. Akane looked at him strangely. He must've looked awfully strange, trying to force something out of his mouth that wouldn't come out.

"What? What is it?" she asked as he massaged his jaw.

"I wanted to call you an uncute tomboy but…but I can't."

"What do you mean, `you can't'?"

"Just what I said!" he snapped. "I wanna say it, but the words won't come out!"

* * *

Akane's smile started small and then grew as realization came to her.

"Oh, I get it," she said with a smirk. "You can't lie, right? So this means that you don't actually think I'm an uncute tomboy, right?"

Ranma's face resembled a deer caught in headlights. "What do you mean?" he said quickly. "Of course I don't! I mean…dooo-n't. Dammit!"

Akane couldn't help but laugh. And while she was immensely enjoying watching Ranma suffer, there was another feeling inside that she wasn't letting him see. It was a kind of relieved joy. She was happy that Ranma didn't actually think what he always said he thought of her. It made her feel good in ways that she didn't quite understand. But it was so funny watching him fight with himself over it.

"We should get back to school, don't you think?" she asked cheerfully. It appeared to catch Ranma off-guard, who was still struggling with his unintentional admission.

"Huh? But what about…" he trailed off.

"Oh, it'll be fine," she said. "We'll think of something. Besides, it'll blow over pretty quickly if we don't make a big deal out of it. Rumors are always coming and going at that school."

He didn't say anything, which - she considered for a moment - was probably a good thing, if he could keep it up. He followed her back to the school, but didn't go inside.

"I never got to eat lunch," he said. "You go on in, I'll be in in a little while."

"You're just going to leave me to them?" she asked. She was teasing him of course, but he did look guilty about it.

"Better you try to explain than me, right?" he said. "I'll probably just say something else that'll get us in even more trouble."

"All right," she agreed. "But you'd better not skip out on the whole day, Ranma. If I have to go back in there, then so do you."

"I said I'd be in in a little while, didn't I?"

He had. "Okay, I believe you. Just hurry up."

So she went back to class, leaving Ranma to finish his lunch. As expected, a huge group of students was waiting to interrogate her upon her return.

"Is it true?" Sayuri asked.

"Were you really sleeping with Ryouga?" Yuka put in.

"Of course not," Akane waved them off. It seemed incredibly easy to do, even considering she was used to doing that sort of thing. She did have a lot of secrets to keep, after all. In fact, since her conversation with Ranma under the tree, she hadn't been feeling as bad about anything, the Ryouga/P-chan incident included. Maybe it had something to do with what she'd found out…

"So why did Ranma say it, then?" Sayuri asked.

"Oh, you know him. We were arguing, and I said some things to Ryouga about him, so he figured he'd get back at us both at the same time." She tried to keep her story as vague as possible, in the chance that Ranma may be called upon to verify it. She was pushing it already.

"That's low, even for him," Yuka said, disgusted. Sayuri nodded her agreement.

"Don't worry about it," Akane told them. "It'll blow over within a day. It was a pretty unbelievable story, after all. Besides, how could I be sleeping with somebody and not even know it?"

"He could have a curse like Ranma's," Sayuri suggested. "Only he turns into an animal or something, like your pet pig, P-chan."

Akane sweatdropped. "Ahehe…I guess you're right."

They couldn't talk anymore, because Himura-sensei called the class to order. He took a quick glance around the room, and immediately noticed Ranma's absence.

"Where is Saotome-kun?" he asked the class. "He was here this morning, was he not?" Several students answered yes. Himura-sensei sighed; it wasn't as if this were the first time this had happened.

"We'll just have to start without him then. He can stand in the hall if he decides to come back."

Akane just shook her head.

Several minutes later, Ranma did come back. Himura-sensei looked up at him, and he immediately went for the buckets.

"Not so fast, Saotome-kun," sensei stopped him. "Is there a reason you are late to class almost every day?"

"Cuz I think you're a boring hack who doesn't know what he's talkin' about, and doesn't teach anything worth learning."

Himura-sensei fumed. He didn't get a chance to yell however, as Ranma picked up the buckets and went straight for the hall without saying another word. It took another two minutes for Himura-sensei to get the class to stop laughing and back to work. Ranma was never let back in.

* * *

After school, Ranma left the building so quickly that Akane had to jog for a bit to catch up with him.

"Why the rush?" Akane asked once she came along side him near the school gate.

"Do ya need to ask? I just wanna go home where I won't have to talk to anybody until this stupid wish wears off."

"It was pretty funny what you said to Himura-sensei though," she giggled.

"Yeah, but I'm gonna have to pay for it for the rest of the month, I bet," he said bitterly.

"SAOTOME RANMA!"

The cry came from behind, just inside the gate. Ranma stopped in his tracks, an expression of utmost annoyance and contempt on his face. He knew exactly who it was.

"What do you want, Kunou?" he demanded, twirling around to face his adversary. Kunou was holding his bokken out towards Ranma, as was his routine.

"You have been spreading foul rumors about the fair Tendou Akane, and I shall not stand for it!"

"First of all, it wasn't a rumor, it was t-" Akane's hand slapped over his mouth before he could finish. He thanked her a thousand times in his head.

"Nobody believed it, Kunou-senpai," Akane said. "There wasn't any real harm done."

"Ah, my beauteous Tendou Akane, how noble thou art; how just! But nay, it is the principle of the matter! Harmful or not, the intent to do harm was still present, and for that this vile cur must pay!"

Ranma's eye's narrowed in irritation. He was about to remove Akane's hand from his mouth and say something, but she said it for him.

"Will you just give it a rest?" She hollered. "Just go home and leave us alone for once!"

Surprisingly - or not surprisingly, depending on how well one knew him - Kunou did not budge, but rather dropped his sword arm to his side and began to weep.

"Oh, how sad it is!" he lamented. "This foul sorcerer has ensnared you so strongly that you even come to his defense, relieving him from even fighting his own battles! Fear not, fair Tendou Akane, for I shall free you from his cursed grasp, and then you shall be free to love me!"

He raised his sword once more and charged. Ranma pushed Akane aside and prepared to fight, but just as Kunou was almost upon him, Akane's leg came out of nowhere and the kendoist was sent flying.

"Who could ever love you?" she shouted, her leg still at the height of her kick. Ranma grinned.

"I always love watching you do that," he told her.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. It's just a reminder that he has no chance with you." He realized what he'd said and hoped it wouldn't go any farther. He didn't mind telling her that, but even he didn't know what the answer would be if she were to ask the next obvious question…

* * *

"Why should that matter to you?" She asked, turning to him. As she did, she saw the immense fear in his eyes even as his mouth opened to answer her.

"Because-" she place her hand over his mouth before he could get any farther. After a second or two she removed it.

"What'd you do that for?" Ranma asked, clearly relieved that she had.

"I told you I wouldn't make you tell me anything else. You're right; it isn't fair if you can't stop yourself." She told herself that was the whole reason, and she hadn't done it because she partly hadn't wanted to hear the answer herself. Yes, that was it. It was just for Ranma.

"Thanks, Akane," he gave her a true smile, one that she didn't get to see very often. They walked the rest of the way home in silence.

* * * * *

That's chapter two. I already changed the title. I said I would, didn't I? This one works, but I might still change it later on.

No, Himura-sensei does not exist in the manga or the anime (not to my knowledge, anyway.) I made him up. If you're curious about his name, it's because I was just reading a Rurouni Kenshin manga. =P

If you like this story, tell your friends, won't you? ^_^