Hello Again

In the Ranma 1/2 episode Pretty Womanhood, Ranma-kun is hit by Akane and cracks his head on a rock in the backyard pool. Upon awakening, Ranma-chan is convinced that she is really female, basically was meant to be female, and wants to remain female. In the series, of course, that doesn't happen, but a number of fiction pieces have been writing using the premise that Ranma-chan did want to remain female, permanently.

The story "Hello Again" is one of those stories that expands on that premise. It's a relatively short story, but one of the most moving that I have read. Ranma-chan wants to remain female; Genma and Soun don't intend that to happen, and so Genma has threatened to kick our Ranma-chan, leaving her with no home at all.

This proves too much for her and she flees into the night. Akane has seen the expression on Ranma-chan's face, though, and is terrified by the look on her face. The line the author uses to describe Ranma-chan's crying is particularly noteworthy: "This was the weeping of a soul beyond hope."

That one sentence invokes so many images and depths of despair that it's almost an entire story unto itself. This is definitely a must read fanfic.