One Hundred Percent Woman (Prelim title)
by Mark Doherty(mdoherty@mailbox.uq.edu.au)

(Teaser)

Well, here's the thing... this is a teaser, but the fic it's based on
really isn't at the stage where I'd normally think of sending a teaser.
I'm releasing this sort of as a way to get other people's opinions, views,
etc. This is all very beta.

I got the idea for this from an email conversation I was having with
Meredith, the owner of the Ukyou Shrine. Well, one of them, anyway. :P

Anyway, my work will consume my time for the next couple of weeks, and
then I'll be able to get back to writing. This is just sort of a break
from what I've been doing, because what I've been doing is Kodachi. Five
separate stories with Kodachi as a major or central character. Bloody 'ell.
I needed to get away from her for a moment, and so...

Tell me what you think.

++++++++++++++++++++++

Morning. A time for rituals. For one person, it may be the simplest
of rituals; brushing the teeth, perhaps a quick jog, or maybe reading
the newspaper, or even eating breakfast. For others, there are more
complicated or esoteric rituals; morning prayer, martial arts workouts,
meditation. Rituals tend to be tailored to the individual.

One way of looking at a ritual is to see it as a habit that has taken on
special meaning. In a small flat, a girl of about thirteen or so years was
performing a habit of very special meaning. This was a relatively new ritual
for the young girl, but a fairly necessary one.

Kuonji Ukyou was binding her breasts.

It hurt like hell to do it. It made every breath an effort. But it did its
job. It hid a side of her that she no longer wanted anything to do with,
that she hadn't wanted anything to do with for seven years. She'd assumed
the duties, responsibilities and honour of a man. Up until recently, all
she'd needed to affect her male persona was the right attitude - she'd
always been a bit androgynous in looks.

But recently, nature had been showing its disapproval at Ukyou's choice
to live as a man. Nature had, being the interfering Mother that it is,
decided that it was time Ukyou become a woman, even if the girl so wanted
to give up that side of her. Nature was not to be denied. Merely cursed.

Do you know what it's like to be thirteen years old, and to wake up one
morning to find yourself bleeding from... there... for seemingly no good
reason? What it's like, when you go to your only parent, your father, to
try and seek comfort and explanation, only to have him angrily deny
your 'injury' because it implies that you aren't a man? Do you know what
it's like to find out what's going on to yourself only by shamefacedly
sneaking into an embarrassing part of the library, and reading about it
in an all too frank book?

Ukyou knew, and wished she didn't. As far as she was concerned, she
could really do without having to bind her chest, she could really do with
all the other inconveniences of being a girl. But, despite wishes to the
contrary, even if one could choose which gender to pretend to be, one
couldn't choose which gender one was. That just wasn't possible...

With one last tuck, the tight binding was in place. Ukyou stood for a few
moments, taking in shallow breaths, adjusting her lungs to the reduced
air intake. Then, she picked her shirt off its hanger, putting it on
quickly, economically. Once that was on, it was the turn of the bandolier
that acted both as a house to her throwing spatulas, and as a holster for
her primary weapon, a very large combat spatula. Needless to say,
unpredictability was an important part of her combat style.

A lightning fast breakfast later, she was out of her tiny apartment, the
property of an Uncle who, thanks to extensive business trips, used it
infrequently. From the apartment, it didn't take all that long to reach
her new school. She stood outside its gates for a few minutes, just
staring. Other students walked past her, not sparing her a second glance,
as they all entered the grounds. Every student was a boy, there wasn't a
girl in sight; Ukyou's new school was boys-only.

Her... his father had tried to convince him to go to a boys-only school
closer to home. But home had become a wooden construct, a house, and not
the warm and loving abode he vaguely remembered from his childhood. Home
was not a place he wished to be. Besides, he was trying to forever hone his
martial arts skills, for the day when vengeance could finally be his, and
this particular school had a certain reputation for producing martially
skilled students.

So here he was. Still a boys school; to tell the truth he thought that a
good thing. Ukyou had been uncomfortable around girls of his age recently.
They were going through the same... _changes_ that he was, and they were
starting to notice boys. Fortune(good or bad depended on perspective)
had decided that the girls were convinced that Ukyou was a very handsome
boy. He was not so far gone into his adopted gender that he was enamoured
with such scrutiny. A boys school meant that he could get away from the
girls for a while. He already had a doctors note detailing a most painful
sounding medical problem, in preparation for swim class...

Ukyou shook his head to clear himself of the strange sense of forboding that
he was experiencing. With a determined expression, he walked into his new
school. No, he reasoned to himself, his forboding must just have come from
anxiousness about going to a new school. What could possibly go wrong?

Five minutes later, an exasperated boy, his hair tied in a short ponytail,
literally dragged another boy into the schoolyard. The second boy had a
sullen expression on his face, which was framed with a shaggy mop of hair.

"Dammit." the second boy snarled. "Let go of me! It's humiliating! I don't
need your help!"

"Yeah, sure." the first boy snorted. "You couldn't find your way out of a
room with an open door. You should be thanking me, Ryouga."

Ryouga snorted. "Thank you? Keep dreaming Ranma..."

++++++++++++++++++++++

A lot of people put forward the theory that 'if only this girl was the
first to be there for Ranma...' Yes, it bears thinking, in my opinion.
My bias is a matter of public record: I like Ukyou. So, the question came:

What if Ukyou had caught up to Ranma long before he met Akane?

I've planned the first three chapters worth. Akane does enter the
picture, the Tendo engagement agreement does come into this.
And Ukyou is not with Ranma for the entire two-three years that
I have always taken as the time between Ranma/Ryouga's school
and Ranma's arrival at Nerima. Besides that, I'll not say anymore
on the plan.

Comments? I'd appreciate a few outside thoughts, it helps me get
started on a new story. I'll put together a first chapter as soon as
possible, this won't be a long term project like Neko, so you people don't
have to worry on reading new parts a year from now.

(Now, I just have to get round to finishing that Ranma/3x3 Eyes sorta
Fusion, like I promised Eimii. And that Kodachi fic that I told a couple of
people about. Neko has no end in sight. And I still have to complete that
Neko Kodachi sidestory. And then there's those couple of 3x3 Eyes fics I've
been promising myself I'd finish. Not to mention that BGC story I've had on
the backburner for a while... And, of course, there's a couple of other
Kodachi fics I've got to finish off. And I've got to get round to the final
Ryouga and Ukyou story, people have been getting a bit impatient in asking
about that one... Sigh... I wish I was in the mood to write more often, when
I actually have time off from work and Uni.)

************  
Mark Doherty  -  mdoherty@mailbox.uq.edu.au
My fanfics and the Weekly FFML Synopses Lists are at:
http://www.uq.edu.au/~zzhdoher

"Kawaii must die."