Chapter Text
"Gotcha!"
Ranma balanced victoriously atop a bamboo reed in the center of the spring, watching as his Pops fell down into the water below with a mighty splash.
Honestly, why his old man decided this of all things was worth trekking out to the middle of nowhere for, Ranma had no idea. Nothing about Jusenkyo screamed 'legendary training ground' more than any random marshy field Genma could have forced him to fight in. Sure, this specific marshy field had a tour guide, but neither Ranma nor his Pops had any interest in learning its history either. And sure, the tour guide may have said something about the grounds being 'too dangerous', but it probably wasn't anything they couldn't handle.
Then a panda jumped out from the pool where Genma had fallen, and Ranma suddenly felt a lot more interested in hearing what the Jusenkyo guide was yelling at them about. But Ranma could barely focus on his words now, attention directed almost entirely towards the massive panda leering at him from a neighboring reed.
Ranma heard enough, though.
The Spring of the Drowned Panda.
Changing forms.
Curses.
An icy panic gripped him, if he fell into one of those springs would he also—
A thick black paw swiped Ranma in the face, sending him tumbling from his perch and careening into the next pool over. As his body hit the water it felt fizzy, like he'd been dunked into a vat of freshly poured soda. The tingling feeling spread from his head down to the very tips of his feet and faded just as quickly.
His heart beat furiously against his chest, gripped by a mix of adrenaline and fear. The other spring made his Pops a panda. What could this one have made him?
He could still feel his arms and legs, the way the water slipped between his fingers as he righted himself underwater.
His head, neck, and mouth were right where they were supposed to be as he used a single powerful kick to shoot up and breach the surface for air.
But there was something different he couldn't quite place yet, in the way his body moved through the water.
He opened his eyes and looked down at where he could feel a bit of extra buoyancy.
His eyes met two rounded lumps of flesh that weren't there before and he tore open his training dougi to get a better look. He had…
Boobs.
He went ramrod straight as he let out a gasp, heart beating even harder in his chest now. The Jusenkyo guide was yelling again, probably explaining what cursed spring he had the misfortune of falling into, but Ranma could already guess. It was probably the 'Spring of the Drowned Girl', or something like that.
His right ear flicked towards the guide so he could hear better but—
His right ear flicked!
Ranma let go of his dougi and reached a hand up to grab the offending appendage, up higher than its usual home. After a first miss, he winced as his hand wraps around the new, sensitive body part and folded it down so he could just barely see it from the corner of his eye.
The tip of a long, fluffy ear. A shade of soft red verging on pink, just like the strands of hair hanging down around it that used to be black.
And if he had the boobs and the ears…
He took a few deep breaths, trying to center himself and focus on the water wrapping around his body. He should have been perfectly still, but he could feel it around the small of his back. A group of muscles he'd never worked before, never thought about before, were tensing and relaxing unconsciously, softly churning the water behind him.
With his free hand he reached back down into the water, twisting just enough to reach around and grasp it.
He looked at the long strands in his hand.
His tail. Red. Just like his new ears.
He let go of both and turned towards the Jusenkyo guide, still shouting at him from the shore.
And just barely caught the end of what he'd been saying.
"You, dear customer, have fallen into the Spring of Drowned Umamusume!"
[Two Weeks Later]
"I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry 'bout this."
Ranma fiddled with his braid, still wet from the rain, ears pinned down to his head in a fit of rare self-consciousness. Without fully looking up, he glanced at the tall man before him, the rube that Pops somehow made an engagement contract with without Ranma ever being told about it.
The man's face was stony, not a single trace of emotion that Ranma could glean as he stared down at Ranma's ears. The two girls flanking him, both brown-haired uma, looked between the man and Ranma with growing concern.
Then, a twitch of the eye.
Ranma was starting to feel more worried than self-conscious now. Was the man going to do anything? Say anything? Was whatever scam Pops was trying to pull here already up before it even began?
The man slowly leaned forward.
And forward.
And—
Ranma jumped back with a yelp as the man fell flat on his face like a tipped-over statue. Immediately the taller, older-looking of the two brunette uma was down on her knees, flipping the man over and checking for signs of life. "Don't worry, Father is just easily shocked. He'll be fine." With a soft smile towards Ranma and a single, fluid heft, the uma slung the unconscious man across her shoulder and lifted him up. "Apologies for the scare, we can sort everything out once he wakes up." With that, the uma turned and carried the man back indoors. The other uma present looked Ranma up and down before giving a small shrug and following her sister(?) inside.
That just left Ranma, his Pops still looming behind him in panda form, and…
A girl with long blue hair, the distinguishing ears of an umamusume notably absent. She was dressed in a white training dougi and her face was coated in a light sheen of sweat that glistened in the morning sun. "Hi, I'm Akane." She smiled at him, sparkles practically dancing in her eyes. It made something in Ranma's chest flutter, to the point he almost missed her next words, "Want to be friends?"
"Um, sure?"
Ranma obviously said the right thing despite the distracting feeling in his chest, because the blue girl's— Akane's— smile grew even wider as she took hold of Ranma's arm and started lightly pulling him towards the side of the house. "Yes! Now come on, I want to show you something."
Ranma spared a glance back towards his Pops, who stared back for a moment before lumbering his way inside to join the others.
Okay, alright. Just Ranma and the weirdly enthusiastic girl with the magic smile. Ranma could handle this. "Um… sure?" But maybe he could work a bit on his vocabulary.
Ranma followed the girl around and to the back of the estate, expecting to be shown the way to the dojo. That was part of the reason Ranma was supposedly, there after all, and Akane certainly looked the part.
Instead, what he was met with as they turned the final corner and Akane slowed to a stop was…
Wow.
The Tendo estate's back courtyard was massive, making even the already impressive home in front look disproportionately small in comparison. The center of the yard held a large koi pond with a few trees and bushes surrounding it, and a pathway made up of stepping stones led from it back towards the house. The stones came to a sudden stop near the house though, the pathway bisected by a patch of light green grass.
No, not just a patch, an entire strip of perfectly manicured turf that almost shimmered as the light of the sun bounced off its freshly rain-soaked blades of grass. It was wide enough to comfortably fit two or three people running side by side and, as Ranma traced the path with his eyes, he found that it circled around the entire circumference of the courtyard.
It was a miniature, private uma racing track, in somebody's backyard.
"Pretty nice, huh?" Akane lightly elbowed him, jostling him out of his thoughts.
"Yea. It's amazing." And it really was— for a single, solitary moment Ranma even felt a begrudging respect for his Pops, knowing that he somehow set up an engagement for Ranma that could lead to him inheriting all that. Even if it was entirely unwanted and would inevitably blow up in their faces before long.
"Want to run it with me?" Akane asked, stepping forward and twisting around to work her mysterious charms on him.
And that would have been enough to get Ranma to agree already, but honestly, some part of Ranma was also curious. He had done a lot of running since gaining his curse, even more than usual. And it made sense. One of the universal truths of the world was that umamusume were born to run. Whether you called it a genetic predisposition or something like fate, it was simply fact. If an uma could run, they would run, even if it was just for casual exercise. And if an uma couldn't run, then, well…
But since gaining an uma form two weeks ago, running hadn't felt any different at all to Ranma. Sure, he was running a lot, but it was always running from something. Pops' creditors, scam victims, killer purple-haired umas from obscure Chinese warrior tribes… Okay, he had mostly been running from purple-haired killer umas, but the point still remained. Being forced to run from an adverse situation was a core tenant of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts and as its heir, Ranma had learned it well.
But while running away as an uma was definitely faster and easier, that was about all Ranma could say about it. Would running on a track instead of away from his problems be different?
Evidently Ranma was taking too long to answer, because Akane started talking— almost babbling— again, breaking him from his thoughts. "The track is much shorter than regulation, so you won't be able to fully pick up speed before the turns, but it's perfectly good otherwise. The turf is up to Central-level grade quality, I re-lay it myself! Oh, and if it's because you don't want a human slowing you down that's um, that's fine too, I can just watch…"
"No, that's fine! I'd love ta run with ya!" Ranma found himself saying, more concerned about wiping the sullen look off Akane's face than anything else, though it was what he would have said regardless.
With another blinding smile, Akane led Ranma out onto the track and got down into a sprinter's pose, turning her head up and raising a brow at Ranma as he did the same. The best Ranma could do, unsure what he'd done oddly, was offer a smile back. It was enough, and Akane focused back on the track before beginning to count off.
"Three,"
Ranma looked up at the strip of track ahead of him and tried, for just a moment, to put himself into the mind of a real umamusume.
"Two,"
What about a track called out to them? Made them race the way that they did? How would they feel in the moment?
"One,"
Ranma wasn't sure.
"Go!"
On Akane's mark, Ranma shot up from his stance and began sprinting down the track. Far from 'slowing him down' like she'd mentioned, Akane kept up with him stride for stride, even slowing herself down as they both hit the turn and Ranma barely managed to wrangle the unexpected centrifugal force pushing him off-track.
They ran down the straight on the other side, looped back around, and completed their first lap together, Ranma getting better at turning with speed on his second go-round. But he still didn't feel much different at all. Sure, it was nice to run and feel the breeze without his life depending on it, but that was it. It just felt nice.
Then Akane picked up the pace, pulling ahead of Ranma in spite of her human legs, and Ranma saw it.
Long blue hair whipping in the breeze, muscles pulsing in perfect concert to drive her forward, face bursting with unrestrained joy even as it twisted with exertion… Akane looked wild, free in a way Ranma had never seen before.
Had never felt before.
Something in his heart, his soul began to cry out, yearning for that which he had never known before that very moment.
As he picked up the pace to match her, he felt the burn building in his legs as they completed their second and then third lap. He felt the furious pumping of his heart keeping him going, the world shaking with each step growing more powerful than the last.
It was similar to how he felt at the peak of his martial arts conditioning, but there was something else there, something deeper. A fire in his belly that had waited years to be lit. And now that it was, it needed more fuel.
More.
More!
Ranma pulled forward, pouring his all into the feeling building up in his chest.
The feeling of the wind whipping around him, flapping his braid and his tail as he went.
The feeling of his mind and body united in one goal, one song, one great rising swell that banished the weight of existence he'd felt all his life without ever truly noticing it until now.
The feeling of running, not from or towards anything in particular, but just for running's sake. For being's sake.
With wild abandon.
All too quickly, though, Ranma came up on the next bend in the track. He tried to slow down, to tamp down on the passion burning in his legs and in his heart, but it was too late. His momentum sent him careening off the bend and straight into the stone wall marking the perimeter of the Tendo estate.
"Ranma!"
Stars danced in his eyes as he slowly sat back up. Akane was already down by his side, face flush and still panting heavily from their run. She was close too, practically hovering over him as she asked about any pain he felt with such care in her voice that Ranma couldn't bring himself to object. Ranma wasn't used to it, wasn't used to it at all, and he couldn't help the matching blush that spread across his face as Akane started searching his body for any signs of injury.
First his ears, sensitive to the touch, were slowly bent this way and that as Akane checked for any damage from impact. Then the concussion check, Ranma doing his best to tamp down on his feelings as she leaned in close to check his eyes. Then she traveled lower, feeling over his arms and around his torso while asking if there was any pain or sensitivity.
Finally, Akane went even lower, down to his legs.
Oh, his legs! While Akane had been thorough in her checks before, now it hit a whole other level. Her fingers slowly, meticulously felt their way down every muscle, every millimeter of skin. Ranma had never felt the physical difference between his human and uma form, beyond the obvious, so strongly up until that very moment. Akane was examining every fiber of what truly made an umamusume an umasmusume, handling his legs like they were some sacred treasure to be worshiped.
And Ranma felt every single moment of it.
Ranma's face was already flushing redder than his own hair when Akane's thorough 'examination' finally reached his ankles and the mumbling began.
"No signs of sprain or injury, good, good… Musculature indicates a well-rounded racing baseline… Short but… Naturally longer bounds… Hurdle-jumping… thorough training but… low-friction surfaces… ankle pivot… running gait… Human?"
Akane looked up at him, dissecting him with her eyes. Did she… Did she somehow figure out his curse just because of, what, his leg musculature? But there was no way. She wasn't looking at him with any sort of confusion or disgust. It was just fascination. Fascination and maybe a little bit of awe.
Ranma wouldn't mind if she kept looking at him like that.
"What kind of training have you done before, for running?" Akane eventually asked, after staring at him failed to uncover the answers she sought.
"Oh, uh…" Ranma racked his brain, "Pops an' I did a lot of runnin' from place ta place, but I wasn't ever trained for it."
"Huh, your 'Pops'…" Akane jolted up, a grimace crossing her face briefly as she recalled, "Oh yea, the engagement! I completely forgot!" But when she leaned back down towards Ranma and held out a hand to help him back up, she was once again smiling, "Good thing you're a girl so we don't have to deal with that mess, right?"
"Haha, yea…" Ranma slowly reached up and grasped Akane's hand, weight settling in his chest as the reality of his situation hit him. He was a girl, an uma, right now. But once Pops got out of his panda form and explained the situation, all it would take was a single splash of hot water and… Poof.
The engagement, or whatever scam Genma was trying to pull through it, would be back on, and Ranma had no idea how Akane would take it. She was interested in Ranma Saotome, the umamusume. Not Ranma Saotome the human guy.
Unaware of the thoughts brewing in Ranma's mind, Akane pulled him back up onto his feet, "So you practice martial arts too, then?"
"Uh, yea. Saotome School of Anything Goes."
"So father wasn't wrong about that, at least," Akane pressed her hands together and briefly dipped into a shallow bow, "I'm Akane Tendo, heir to the Tendo School of Anything Goes…" She looked off to the side for a moment, hand raised to rub the back of her head, "I guess I did things in the wrong order, didn't I? Hehe."
"Huh?"
"Oh, well, I should have shown you the dojo first, right? Get some light sparring in before our run?"
"I'm um, still good to spar if ya wanna," Ranma stretched out his body, feeling only mild pain from the mix of exercise and full-body impact, "I can take a hit."
In fact, even if he'd just lost a fight with a wall Ranma felt more ready to spar than ever. Some of that excitement, that frenzy that sent him careening into the wall in the first place was still there and needed to be worked out somehow.
Akane hummed, giving Ranma's body another once-over before nodding, "Alright, if you're sure… Let's go!" In a replay of earlier, Akane took hold of Ranma's arm with a smile and pulled him along. This time, though, they were going where he'd expected.
The dojo itself, just like seemingly everything else on the Tendo estate, was big. Plenty of room to hold full classes, with a roof so high Ranma wouldn't have to worry much about smashing his head while doing one of the many aerial moves of the Saotome style.
From a few meters away, Akane bowed at him before getting into a low stance. Ranma bowed back but stood in an intentionally casual stance, even if his body was tensed for action.
He didn't know Akane's capabilities yet, but he could tell she wasn't like him. She was obviously strong, not just from the hints of muscle peaking out from her dougi and how powerful her pull was, but in the way she'd actually made Ranma push himself while running. But she wasn't like Ranma, who lived and breathed martial arts from his earliest memories, who spent years on the road with only his Pops by his side learning everything he possibly could.
Akane surged forth, throwing a well-choreographed punch towards Ranma's stomach. A punch that Ranma easily dodged.
She was testing his capabilities too.
That first punch was followed by a kick, then another punch, and another. Each growing in quickness and ferocity until they were both locked in a rapid-paced dance across the floor of the dojo, Ranma ducking and weaving his way around his partner.
In Akane's eyes Ranma saw the same fire, the same fascination, the same underlying awe as before. His heart swelled and he began to add more flourish to his dodges. A kick nearly graze him as he bent with almost inhuman flexibility around it. He jumped over an incoming fist instead of ducking to the side. He let Akane catch him in a feint before twisting to the side just enough to avoid the real blow coming his way.
When their dance ended and their bodies finally disentangled, having not actually made contact a single time in their bout, Ranma stared across the room at his opponent. She stared right back, a feral grin spread across her lips even as she slumped slightly, exhaustion beginning to set in. Ranma felt it too, the back-to-back race and spar creating a marathon of intense physical activity.
But just the same, Ranma was sure the smile on his own face was just as wild.
With a final burst of energy, Akane surged forward and threw one final punch, putting her entire body into the blow.
In response, Ranma jumped, letting the added power in his legs carry him high over Akane's head, his feet almost touching the ceiling of the dojo itself as he did a twisting somersault over his sparring partner. As he landed back down on the ground behind Akane, he gave her a light tap on the head— his first and only strike in their match.
Slowly, Akane turned her head to look back at him, stunned.
Ranma smiled.
Akane smiled back.
Then Akane slumped to the floor, spurts of giddy giggling mixing in with gasps for air as the physical exertion fully set in. It was odd but, between the exhaustion and the giddiness Ranma found himself slumped down right next to her, joining in on the giggling as the excitement of the day slowly drained away leaving behind a bone-deep sense of satisfaction.
Ranma wasn't sure how long they both lay there in silence, side by side, staring up at the ceiling. But eventually, the sound of the dojo door sliding open cut through the moment.
"Ranma? Akane? Oh dear, you two must have had quite the workout," the voice of the taller of the two brown-haired uma called out.
"We did! Kasumi, it was… She was…" Akane raised her arms in the air and waved them vaguely, unable for a moment to articulate what she wanted to say, "perfect."
That sent a little zip of energy coursing through Ranma's veins and he sat up. The brown-haired uma, Kasumi, was standing in the doorway, eyes lingering between Ranma and Akane. "That's good to hear," she said, voice slightly strained, "I already prepared hot water in the furo, if you'd like to wash off."
Ranma gulped. Kasumi shifted to stare right at him.
"Yes! You're the best 'Sumi! C'mon Ranma, let's go!" Akane shot up to her feet in spite of her previous exhaustion and leaned down to help Ranma up, before Kasumi cut in.
"I think we should let our guest wash off first, in private. What do you think, Ranma?" Kasumi 'asked', but the tone made it clear exactly how she wanted him to answer.
"Um, yea. I uh, I haven't had a good soak in weeks. A private bath would be nice. Sorry 'Kane."
The way Akane visibly slumped at his words made him feel bad, but he knew that what was coming would likely only be even worse. Kasumi clearly already knew, and if she already knew… There was no way Ranma could hide his male form— his real form. He hadn't even thought, consciously, of hiding it before. But now…
Following Kasumi to the furo made him feel like he was walking towards his own execution.
He was just being overly dramatic, just being worried that this cute cool girl he'd just met, who wanted to be his friend, would be dissapointed.
Yea, that was it. Ranma didn't have many friends, having lived on the road for so much of his life. Once the curse was revealed, Akane would probably feel betrayed, and then Pops would try whatever scheme he had planned with the engagement which would make it worse. Then it would all inevitably fall apart entirely and they'd end up right back on the road where they started, and Ranma would never see Akane again.
This was just another stop on the endless path towards being the best martial artist he can be, a path that he enjoyed being on! Leaning into his curse, running along with Akane… All of that was just a nice distraction.
As they stopped in front of the bathroom door, Kasumi turned towards Ranma. Her gaze, accusatory when she'd first led him out, had softened over their journey. "Whatever happens, be patient with my sister, okay?"
Ranma wasn't sure what exactly she meant, but he nodded anyways. He did still want to be the girl's friend if that would be possible, after all.
Kasumi smiled, and beckoned Ranma into the bathroom. She showed him where the towels were, where she'd left him a fresh set of clothing from his travel pack, and then…
Ranma was alone.
Slowly, if only to delay the inevitable, he stripped off the baggy pants and silken shirt he wore, caked in sweat and bits of dried mud, and lay them to the side.
He let his eyes drift over to the mirror.
A red-haired umamusume stared back.
She was a little shorter— okay, a lot shorter than she'd probably like, but powerful. Every inch of her looked tempered, showcasing the years of hard training she must have gone through to get to that point. And in her eyes… Ranma could see the flame within, that spark of wildness just waiting to be let out.
The uma in the mirror smiled at him, something shaky that grew stronger as a feeling of lightness began to swell in Ranma's heart.
Ranma forced himself to look away, to tamp down on the feeling.
With a deep breath, he opened the door separating the furo from the rest of the bathroom. It waited for him, steam still wafting across its surface.
Just one dunk, and…
He shook his head. Why was he so caught up on this?
No point in waiting.
Quickly rinsing most of the sweat and dirt off his body with the shower attachment hanging to the side, Ranma jumped into the water before he could let himself delay any longer.
He felt the weight settle back down within him as his body shifted into his male form, but otherwise it felt… Nice. Ranma didn't even bother holding in the light moan that left him as his sore muscles became immersed in the hot bath. After all, he hadn't been lying earlier when he said he hadn't had a good soak in weeks. Getting chased all the way across China tended to do that to a person, and Pops hadn't let them slow down even when they washed up on a Japanese shore, so focused on getting them to their destination.
To Ranma's 'engagement', as he now knew.
But Ranma didn't want to think about that, or the million ways it would go wrong, right now. He just wanted to enjoy the warmth, the relief.
And so he did, sinking low into the water until it was almost up to his nose, his black braid bobbing in the water behind him.
Closing his eyes, he let himself drift.
No weird thoughts.
No concerns about the future.
Just—
"Hey Ranma, I noticed you had some pretty bad knots in your tail earlier, so I brought you a—"
Ranma shot up from the water, whipping around to face the door.
To face Akane, standing at the entryway with a tail brush in her hand. Already ready to jump into the furo with her new uma friend.
That is to say,
Naked.
For a long moment they both stared at each other in stunned silence. Then Akane's eyes drifted down, to look at Ranma's…
Oh,
Oh no.
Before Ranma could even move to cover his privates or turn away from the naked girl in front of him or anything, Akane threw the brush in her hand. It smashed directly into Ranma's forehead and his head whipped back, the rest of his body following as the force of it sent him flopping backwards into the water.
As he bobbed along the surface, he could hear Akane stomping away, screaming through the rest of the house,
"Pervert! Pervert in the bathroom!"