I have a couple of people to thank for suggestion this story to me. Rhiannon is one of the two, and the other is Dreamscaper. It was neat that the two people suggested the same fanfic within a few days of each other. Obviously, it's a story that was meant to be included.

Review

The story is based on Pretty Womanhood, and is another fanfic using that episode as a jumping-off point. Ranma-chan is in female mode, but has really become female. She and Nabiki get along very well, and Ranma-chan has become finally happy.

They have to deal with the various engagements, though, and find a very creative way to deal with the one with Shampoo. I really like this particular solution to the problem. Also, the creative ideas that Nabiki has on ways for her and Ranma-chan to earn money are very logical and realistic.

I also like the way the writer notes that, how one perceives oneself, as female or male, is not a switch in the brain that can just be turned one way or the other. There's some very good thinking that has gone into this story.

The only thing I'm somewhat uneasy with is the ending, and I won't say why here, but in the synopsis. Other than the very ending, I think this is one of the better Ranma-chan stories with some very original thinking on the part of the author of the story.

Synopsis (Note: Spoilers.)

The story opens with the events in Pretty Womanhood up to the point where Ranma-chan first wakes up.

As in the episode, Ranma talks like a girl and acts like one. Unlike the episode, she actually talks back to Akane. Ranma-chan also acts more like a very strong-natured girl who knows just what she wants. She offers to help Kasumi fix dinner, and then goes shopping. Nabiki thinks Ranma-chan is just pulling a scam.

Ranma-chan starts acting like Nabiki and makes a deal with her that could bring them lots of money. Ranma-chan sees Dr. Tofu and he verifies that her aura and chi flows are totally female. Dr. Tofu tells Akane she always blames Ranma when she hits him, and that's a sign of abuse. He also tells her Ranma is a girl mentally and will probably stay that way the rest of her life.

She is, in effect, a girl that is cursed to change into a boy.

Kasumi and Ranma-chan have a bit of a misunderstanding, but Kasumi accepts Ranma-chan as a little sister.

Nabiki and Ranma-chan come up with a very elegant solution to the Amazon problem with Shampoo, and it pleases both Cologne and Shampoo.

Akane, Ukyo, Genma and Soun all head to Tofu's to get him to change Ranma back. Tofu says he can't do anything, so the group leaves and plans their own, violent, way of getting Ranma to change back.

Nabiki and Ranma-chan go to Ukyo's, but things don't go well there.

Akane again violently hits Ranma-chan, and she wakes up seeming to think she's a boy, but it's really a con job. She confesses to Nabiki that she's still thinks of herself as female.

Now, as to the ending. I don't really like it, in that I think it is going to create more problems. I like the fact that Ranma-chan is still a female mentally, and I like the relationship she has developed with Nabiki and with Cologne.

I think, though, that if Ranma/Ranma-chan were to try to pretend to be a boy cursed to be a girl, things would go wrong and the others would catch on to her acting. Ranma-chan is fully a girl in her mind and, when changed, in her body. If she tries to act like she's a boy when in her boy's body, she's going to slip up, sooner or later.

I think this might be a case where Ranma-chan would have to move out of the Tendos and live with Tofu or Cologne. Even then she would still have the danger of being attacked by her father and Soun in their endless attempts to turn her back into a boy mentally, but, at least being out of the house would cut down their opportunities.

I think the story could have gone on then some more about Ranma-chan and Nabiki's working relationship; perhaps even more of a relationship than that, or Ranma-chan might find a boy she would become attracted to. I think there's more potential in the story, and that is because the story is so very well done up until the actual ending.