Happi Days

The light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming dragon.

Ryouga intended to wait for "Akane" to get out of school but he recognized a figure who was trying to get his attention a few minutes later. Ryouga couldn't put a name to the face, but knew it was one of Ranma's classmates.

"Ryouga, you escaped too." Tetsuo Tsukiku exclaimed. "Good, that's almost an even dozen now."

"Dozen what?"

"Guys," Tetsuo said with some relief. "That's a little less pressure on the rest of us. Not much but every bit helps."

"What are you talking about?"

Tetsuo quickly outlined the events of the past week. Saotome storming out of the Tendo residence, Happosai going on a vengeance crusade against everyone by hitting them with blasts of "Spring Of Drowned Bishojo Bride" water, the male population of Furinkan down to (if you included Ryouga) eleven guys that happened to be missing on that morning for one reason or another. Happosai vanishing, presumably to wait for Saotome to show up.

"You're kidding. You ARE kidding, right? Please be kidding!" Ryouga looked slightly ill. "Then when Happi shot that water at me and I blocked with my umbrella..."

Ryouga pulled his umbrella out and thanked it profusely for being there when he needed it.

"Not kidding. I tell you it has been HELL here. Guys you used to know, or girls you used to know as guys, are acting more and more like girls! They changed the uniform so that girls are wearing fukus now!" Tetsuo shuddered.

"I take it you don't like sailor suits."

Tetsuo favored him with a horrified look. Ryouga recognized it as the same sort of expression that he wore himself whenever someone offered him pork.

"You've got to be kidding," Tetsuo said in a low voice. "I lived in Juuban. Do you know what Juuban is like? Youma keep showing up, and then there's those damn Senshi! I got caught in between a youma, the Senshi, and a wall. That's what got me started studying magic, it's hard not to believe in magic when some girl has just slammed you with some sort of lightning spell."

"Or when you've seen Jusenkyou curses," Ryouga added.

"Yeah. Speaking of which, I hope Saotome shows up soon."

"So he can draw Happosai out into the open?"

Tetsuo shook his head. "No, when I got here, Ranma found out I was studying magic and wanted to know if I could figure out how to cure a Jusenkyo curse."

"Oh, and can you?" Ryouga tried not to look interested or hopeful.

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"I've gotten a lot of chances to study the curses, and I've managed to get a sample of the water. I promised Ranma that if I found a cure, I'd come to him first. I may have found a way to transfer the curse, cutting its bonds to a particular individual and then transfer it over to someone else. If I can do that, I can transfer his 'Young Girl' curse to an animal or something and he'll no longer have it. It's really tricky though, and can only be attempted on one night a year."

Tetsuo looked at Ryouga and smiled. "Sorry, didn't mean to talk shop."

"So what have you figured out about the curses," asked Ryouga. "I mean this whole changing thing is just so bizarre."

"According to some records, there was an ancient civilization called the 'Silver Millennium' and one of their cities was the site of a major battle of magic between forces of good and evil. Just my theory, but Jusenkyo's source could have been the site where that battle took place and left a Transmutation rift into the underlying probability matrix between universes."

"Uh yeah." Ryouga hadn't moved, but he had the feeling he was lost again.

"Sorry." Tetsuo leaned up against one of the trees. "Let me tell you, Ryouga, it's been a scary week. The mental effects have been the worst things."

"Mental effects?"

"Yeah." Tetsuo glanced briefly at Ryouga. "I mean most of the guys that got changed acted pretty much normal for the first day. About halfway through the day after they'd gotten cursed you started noticing things that they were doing different."

"Things?" Ryouga looked lost again, or maybe he just hadn't stopped being lost.

"Yeah. Little mannerisms that were off. Guys that used to walk like guys now taking smaller steps, or raising the pitch of their voice when talking to authority figures, using more feminine speech patterns, you know, GIRL stuff."

"Oh." Ryouga looked a little frightened as the possibilities ran through his mind.

"Yeah. It got worse into the third day, even some of the teachers that used to be guys were adopting more gestures, acting more girlish, getting more comfortable with the change."

"Oh." Ryouga repeated. He was VERY glad he didn't attend school. "Then all those girls in those fuku..."

"Not all, but a LOT of them are formerly guys. Nabiki's been selling accessories, makeup kits and instruction books, all sorts of things. What's really been crazy was Monday."

"This IS Monday." Ryouga looked uncertain.

"Yeah, I cut out after two classes of this. I had to get some fresh air, you know?"

"What's so bad now?" Ryouga had a Bad Feeling about this, he had a feeling this was one of those questions that you really didn't want to know the answer to.

"Sometime over the weekend, most of the guys' gender identity and gender preference switched. That's why I HAD to get out. I don't care if Hinako sensei gives me grief for being a delinquent, this was just too much for me to handle."

"What do you mean?" Ryouga didn't get it, though a little voice in the back of his head was making noises like "Gakkk!" and "Ick!"

"Meaning those that have gone this far, which seems to be everyone who wasn't fighting it or didn't have a lot of mental strength or stability, now regard themselves as girls and are comfortable with it. More frightening, to me at any rate, is that they're quite apparently attracted to guys now."

"Gakkkk!"

"Well put, Ryouga." Tetsuo noticed someone approaching. "Uh oh. I just thought of why I SHOULD NOT let Hinako sensei catch me. LATER...."

Tetsuo turned to run, which was his second mistake as he did have a nice "don't notice me" spell that he could have cast in short order.

"HAPPO FIVE YEN SATSU!"

Ryouga noticed Tetsuo trying to run as he was getting drained and hid behind a tree. He watched as a partially drained Tetsuo Tsukiku collapsed on the ground, only to be surrounded by fuku wearing girls who were apparently going to "rescue" him and "nurse him back to health" from their remarks.

Ryouga turned slightly green, made sure that Miss Hinako didn't see him, and silently prayed that he hadn't been noticed and please-kami-let-Akane-get-out-of-class-early-so-I-can-get-the-heck-out-of-here- fast.

He heard a step behind him and turned, slowly, knowing that this was Major Big Time Not Good.