Chapter Text
Ranma was yet again enrolled in school. He was surprised he was able to keep up in an age-appropriate grade, despite all the traveling and training with his father. Genma had found an all-boys middle school for his son in the current town they were at.
At the end of lunch break, the school cafeteria was chaotic. The lunch lady would throw in the air the last pieces of bread. It was free for all for whoever could catch any. Ranma always got the most, and the better of them, thanks to being a proficient martial artist already. He noticed one particular boy was a close second to him. But Ranma was able to always snatch whatever bread the other intended to. With each scuffle, the other boy got angrier and more competitive about it. But Ranma wasn't aware of any of this.
Until finally, one fierce clash, they accidentally cut each other in the flurry of flying trays. The school nurse immediately noticed that their cuts were in their wrist glands and in the same shape. “Oh, you two are something special,” she mused, almost sure these were going to turn out to be soulmarks. Ranma and the other boy exchanged confused looks. 'What was she onto?'
Soulmates are a rare phenomenon, known to everyone but felt by a few. The connection between soulmates is apparent by a distinctive mark. For some, this mark manifests from birth. For others, the mark appears later in life, one way or another, to each soulmate counterpart.
The mark can be just that, a visual imprint. Or the mark may exhibit unique characteristics that signal their connection. Because it is rare, and because of the different variations that have been found, it is hard to tell initially who is soulmate to whom, if any. But once they find each other, they know.
The cafeteria clashes between Ranma and the other boy only intensified. Every other encounter made each other's mark graze unintentionally. Whenever that happened, it would make Ranma expose his neck automatically in submission. When the waft of apple cinnamon reached the other boy’s nose, his gums would hurt. That meant his fangs would flash, but his’ were ever long since childhood. Instead, he became a salivating mess. Neither had presented yet, but these reactions had them questioning their incoming designations. It made them immediately stop their fighting, weirded out by the whole thing.
When they were away from each other at home, Ranma felt like an emotion that wasn't his own, clung to him. Like a superimposed sensation radiating from the mark. Genma noticed Ranma's scar and recognized it for what it truly was. Observing more closely the effects of the mark on his son and the other boy from school, he frowned at the implication. From the scent of like a grill cooking bacon alone, it was clear to Genma that the other boy would present as an alpha; just like Ranma would too. The thought of the two continuing to mingle, unsettled him. Even if, from what he could gather, the two were rivals and not friends; it could turn worse.
The other boy, Ryoga, tired of Ranma always besting him at the cafeteria, challenged him to a duel. He picked the park behind his house for convenience. However, Ryoga had inherited his mother’s notoriously bad sense of direction. Normally, he relied on his smart dog, ShiroKuro, to help him navigate to and from school. That afternoon, when the loyal dog left Ryoga at home, it went to look for his mom, since dad wasn't home yet to guide her back. Ryoga's mistake was thinking he could make it to the back of his house without his trusty companion. If only he paid a little more attention to the sensations emanating from his scarred wrist, he would have found his way sooner.
Three days. Three agonizing days in which his parents and ShiroKuro scoured every corner in search of Ryoga. And three days in which Ranma persistently showed up at the designated spot for their duel. On the fourth day at last, Ryoga arrived at the park ready to confront the other. The nerve of that jerk to leave him hanging!
There was always the next day, except Ranma didn't even show up for school. News were that Ranma's enrollment was withdrawn. Ryoga grappled with the horrific possibility that he might never see him again. The thought ignited an unrestrained fury within him, an unproportionate response. He was having his first rut.
Ryoga's parents, both soulmates themselves, recognized the trigger. Their son had found his soulmate, and now that connection was abruptly severed. Genma had decided to pull Ranma out of school, precisely to separate him from the other boy. He then redoubled Ranma's training. And continued to raise him to be an "alpha man amongst alpha men;" a promise he still believed in.
Meanwhile, Ryoga struggled with an impulse to go search for Ranma, but he didn’t know why. He rationalized his yearning as a grudge, making Ranma not showing up to their duel the highest of offenses. However, his parents recognized that it was much more profound than that. They understood Ryoga needed to find his soulmate just as much as he needed to breathe. While they wished to guide him through this realization, they knew the soulmate journey was one that Ryoga had to embark on himself. No matter how much one could explain it, understanding would only come through personal experience. So they took the hard decision to allow their son to pursue the other boy. Trusting the soulmark would lead him in the right direction, like it did for them. And they hoped that one day he would find his way back to them.
During their travels, Ranma described to his father a strange, unsettling rage that seemed to pulse from his wrist. It was as if an invisible connection tied him to something, or someone, he could neither see nor fully comprehend. Genma brushed it off, knowing it was a side effect of separating Ranma from his soulmate. Nothing that wouldn’t fade with time and training. He urged Ranma to focus on channeling this energy into becoming a stronger martial artist.
Meanwhile, Ryoga unknowingly followed a set of feelings that told him exactly where he needed to go next. His bad sense of direction having him on non-paths or roads, forcing his way through cities or wilderness. He felt like he was always a few steps behind, one more town over, and he would finally catch up. He didn't know where he was, but he knew his destination.
However, for Ranma, a shift became undeniable as the days wore on. The rage became his own, if anything out of frustration, bringing his first rut. Genma was delighted, to say the least. Nature for sure wouldn't make incompatible soulmates, he thought. Not that he ever doubted his son would turn out to be an alpha. The mark had to stop affecting his son, his plans were aligned once more. No need to fear having to respond to a promise he made a long time ago.
Genma’s celebration of Ranma’s emerging alpha status was short-lived. They stumbled upon a seemingly dangerous training ground, the Jusenkyo Cursed Springs. Ignoring the guide’s warnings, father and son went straight to business. But to their ill fate, they each fell into a different cursed spring. Genma fell in the spring of the drowned panda, while Ranma fell in the spring of the drowned female omega. Again, Genma had a reason to never return home and have to commit seppuku.
Genma refreshed his memory of the many families he had promised Ranma as a fiancé. He ultimately settled on his good childhood training partner and friend, Soun Tendo. Who owned a dojo which they could inherit and make money off of, and had three daughters, one who ought to be an omega. With Ranma lined up for a proper marriage to an omega, Genma hoped to swerve any lingering doubts regarding his son’s alpha manliness. He forced Ranma back to Japan, to a town called Furinkan in the county of Nerima.
Ranma found himself betrothed to the uncute, unfeminine, strong-willed Akane. A curse he wasn’t allowed to pursue a cure for, in favor of a convoluted plan to prove his masculinity. Enrolled yet again in school. And an increasingly closer emotional storm coming his way. A sensation he had all throughout his travels, he was almost happy to finally confront whatever that was.
Ryoga felt a pull radiating from the scar on his wrist guiding him towards Furinkan High School. As he entered the school grounds, the chaos of laughter and conversation faded into the background. His focus honed in on one figure amidst the crowd—apples, though it now was more like a cider.
He spotted Ranma tagging along with a girl he didn’t care for her secondary designation. Ryoga pushed through the crowd of students. Each step fueled by the unresolved tension of their rivalry, or so he thought. As they locked eyes, a surge of energy enveloped them. Ryoga demanded to have his long-awaited duel. A fight was inevitable; but it felt like so much more, like a confrontation of fate.