What If: Ryoga learned Ranma was responsible at Jusenkyo?

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

For a while now, I've been of the opinion that the reason Ranma, Genma and the Guide ended up at Nyuchiezu, with the Saotomes still in cursed forms, is because they fled Ryoga's quite justifiable rage at Genma and the Guide for trying to boil him. We don't see him attack them in his canonical flashback, but given the situation and who we're talking about, it makes sense that Genma and the Guide would run off, snatch up the unaware Ranma in the process, and then lose Ryoga before heading to the close-by village of the Joketsuzoku, given what's happened to Ryoga and who he is at this early stage in the saga.

Anyway, my question/idea is: what if Ryoga actually learned that Ranma was the one who cursed him before any of them left Jusenkyo? How would things change as a result of that?

The basic scenario in my head is that, when Genma brings Ryoga to the Guide for cooking, Ranma shows up before Ryoga gets dunked into the hot water. Perhaps making some idle comments about how boiling the pig is cruel, and/or wasting hot water, Ranma steals a small amount of it, after Ryoga's had a good chance to see "her" and realise that this is the girl who knocked him into the Spring of Drowned Pig, and then reverts to his human self, who Ryoga recognizes. Ryoga then changes back himself, whether by the Guide dunking him in or by attacking the Guide so he can leap into the boiling water. Scalded and absolutely furious, Ryoga attacks all three of them indiscriminately, causing them to run off and escape him, ending up going to Joketsuzoku and more or less acting as in canon. So, given that Ranma will be going into Joketsuzoku and end up eating the banquet as a male, and Ryoga is now perfectly aware that Ranma is not only in the area but cursed him "on purpose", what's likely to develop? How would this affect the Nerima scenario?

To share my own thoughts on the matter...

Because Ranma is still Ranma, he's just in his proper gender this time, I see him eating the prize as in canon and challenging Shampoo, but this time she ends things by giving Ranma the fan-dubbed 'Kiss of Marriage'. Now, the Guide may or may not be able to "translate" what this means to Genma, but Ranma's going to be fairly spellstruck (he is shown in both canons as being stunned and pleased at getting the Kiss of Death -- until he finds out what it means), and if Genma isn't immediately alerted to the fact that Shampoo's basically just declared herself Ranma's wife, he may be willing to stay here awhile: not only is it a form of civilisation, it's got lots of martial arts training to do/techniques to learn, it's close to Jusenkyo so he and Ranma can look in to their cures, and it's (hopefully) shelter from Ryoga (they don't know he's gotten lost).

Of course, nothing lasts forever; Mousse's rage over how Ranma is "stealing" his Shampoo, whether or not Ranma is at all thinking of him and Shampoo as more than friends (depending on minutia, Ranma may think of them as friends while wishing to be more, or may actually be aware she's attracted to him and responding - keep in mind, unlike canon, she hasn't dashed her initial attractiveness by trying to kill him, even if he's not aware that she thinks of him as her husband-to-be) isn't any obstacle... but, either Genma's going to do something stupid, he's going to find out at last that Shampoo and Ranma have been betrothed by the backwards laws of this place (or, alternatively, he may think that Ranma is getting too "attached" to Shampoo for the Tendo pledge's own good), or Ryoga's going to make an attack on the village severe enough that the Saotomes run off to save themselves.

The end result is that Ranma and Genma are going to head back to Japan while still being cursed (the possibility does strongly exist that they may have cures coming to them in the future), and, once there, Genma is naturally going to declare it time that Ranma head to the Tendo Dojo and wed one of Soun's daughters. This time, however, Ranma's hesitance towards the engagement is going to be stronger than canon because there's already a girl he likes and may have spent time bonding with.

[Quickshot0]

Is this a story idea or a question on how we see this developing considering canon information?

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Honestly, while I do see the story potential in this, I'm mainly asking how folks see this developing considering canon information. If this gets off the ground, I do figure I can mine it for useful information (not all of it, of course, I have my predjudices - preferring Shampoo to Akane, enjoying a cure as a story resolution, etc), but I'm basically wondering just how folks see this as most likely to screw with the canon.

As I said, this probably makes Ranma more inclined to like Shampoo (flashbacks to the event in either canon show him as "crushing" on her until he finds out what the Kiss of Death means) and so less inclined to like Akane... but I'm not sure how else it might screw with the canon. Does it mean that Shampoo and/or Mousse may show up earlier - and if so, what are they going to do to the Saotome/Tendo interaction? How will the Saotomes and Tendos be getting on, assuming their meeting (show up in cursed form, Ranma beats Akane unthinkingly - or, if anything, more so than in canon, Akane walks in on Ranma as a guy in the bathroom) remains unchanged (personal feelings of Ranma & Genma about this mess aside)? Ryoga knows now that Ranma truly did curse him at Jusenkyo, and he's hunting Ranma down, but now he's had a chance to think about it without his canonical infatuation with Akane getting in the way, what's happened? Is he still mad, more furious than ever, or perhaps even calmed down and determined to make Ranma help him find a cure as payback for cursing him in the first place?

I want to hear what people think.

[Cheb]

Because Ranma is still Ranma, he's just in his proper gender this time,

Nuh-huh. In the canon, he slipped in unnotices only because he was a girl. This time he'd draw a lot of attention, with being a sole male in the crowd and such. Them amazons would stop him from even approaching the prize.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Um... I will admit to being uneducated in the minutia of the manga. However, does it not portray the crowd as being fixated on the current battle between Shampoo and her much more imposing opponent, only noticing Ranma and Genma when she knocks her opponent out of the arena (with Ranma & Genma just starting to eat beforehand) and so they are free to look around, as is the case in the anime?
Similarly, if being male is enough to make Ranma stand out, then why didn't they notice and restrain the guide in canon, who is and was visibly male?
I don't see any particular reason why Ranma being in male form when he gets to the village would cause him to be interrupted before he gets to the feast. Nobody was paying attention to anything but the fighting in canon, I don't see why they'd notice that's the case... and isn't the crowd actually shown to contain men in the manga version, anyway?

To go on a tangent, I've found that Ranma actually offers to talk to Ryoga about compensation for the curse in both the manga and the anime, though s/he's forced to turn Ryoga into a pig first because he's attacking her in a blind rage. Ryoga, however, ruins Ranma's desire to make restitution by first attacking her (biting her neck in the manga) and then running to Akane, who pisses Ranma off when she unthinkingly kisses "P-chan" on the nose. However, in this scenario I'm preposing, Ryoga has had time to cool down by the time he meets Ranma, who would, as in canon, be willing to make restitution once told of his part in Ryoga's curse. What's that likely to do?

The thought that comes to me is that Ryoga would demand Ranma help him get a cure, Ranma would tell him that the Nanniichuan in China can cure them both, and the two would start making plans to both try and get Ranma away from the clutching grip of Soun & Genma and to get the money so they can sail or fly to China in search of Jusenkyo... but is that what would actually happen?

[Crescent Pulsar R]

The crowd is, indeed, captured by the sight of the fight. It isn't until Shampoo is announced as the champion, and about to seize her prize (the food), that people notice them.

As for men being in the crowd, in the manga, there don't seem to be any drawn in enough detail to be sure that they're men. In the panel where Ranma defeats Shampoo, you can see some people in the background that appear to have the same shape and attire as the guide, but they could just be overweight women. In the panel where Ranma is sitting on Shampoo's weapon, there's someone of that description up close, but I honestly can't tell if it's a man or a woman, since I don't know what to make of the face.

As for Ryoga cooling down, it's doubtful. Ryoga is more likely to let something fester rather than cool down over time. He easily holds grudges, to the point of hunting them down, after all. I mean, he was already blaming Ranma for the curse even before he knew for certain, so I imagine that, knowing for certain from the get-go, he'd feel the same or worse about it.

Besides that, I doubt that would happen, if both Ranma and Ryoga were intent on going to China. What isn't stopping Ranma from going to China with Ryoga that wasn't stopping him before? Because, even if Ryoga has a change of heart over the matter, it doesn't change the overall circumstances which supposedly kept Ranma from going in the first place. Ranma still wanted to return to China on his own (as did Ryoga), and jumped at each opportunity to get to the nannichuan (both in China and Japan), with the notable exception of just going. Which is why he (and Ryoga) never went until the plot of the last story arc brought him there.

I suppose it's workable in fan-fiction (what isn't, right?), but I honestly don't see much of anything changing (improvement-wise, anyway), if anything at all, if Ryoga were to know that Ranma was responsible for his curse from the start.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

I'm honestly a little skeptical about Ryoga cooling down, I mean, I do know that he chased Ranma to China over that stupid bread feud and blamed Ranma on the grounds that he "was absent, so I went looking" excuse in canon... it's just there's a guy on TVTropes who insists that Ryoga actually holds grudges less easily and for shorter periods of time then Ranma does in canon, and, well, I don't know enough of the manga to really say for sure if he's right or if he's just letting the sympathy he feels for Ryoga (he perceives him as ambiguously autistic, for starters) blind him to the truth.

Basically, I was thinking that with Ryoga actively supporting Ranma in trying to get out of Nerima (for example, if Ranma declares he will leave and nobody's stopping him save with force, then he'd have Ryoga backing him up if Soun and Genma promptly tried to attack him), and also pooling whatever money he is able to save with that which Ranma manages to get (Ryoga seems to get a lot of money from somewhere, given he not only buys vital supplies but various presents for Akane) so they can afford a plane or a boat ticket to China and back, it'd be easier for Ranma to justify leaving. After all, the biggest thing with just hoofing it again is that it means that Ranma would end up walking to the coast of Japan, swimming a couple thousand miles to China, walking across China to Jusenkyo, then turning around and repeating the whole damn trip to get home again. It's sort of understandable he'd rather not go to all that fuss and bother, especially if he believes there may be potential cures right here.

But yeah, I was getting ahead of myself. I should be focused on trying to hear folks opinion on is how Ryoga's attitude towards Ranma will change, if it changes at all, what is likely to go down as a result of Ranma showing up at Nyuchiezu in male form and swiping Shampoo's victory feast, and what the fallout of *that* will be when Ranma and Genma finally head home to Japan. Not to mention why they leave China without a cure if Ranma hasn't pissed off Shampoo and had her coming for his neck - after all, the KoD is for "women who are beaten by outsider women", and Ranma is showing up in male form, so if he fights, he falls afoul of the "women who are beaten by outsider men must marry that man" rule. For that last part, I figure it's easy: blame Genma.

[Wyrd]

I like the idea that Ryouga's family is rich because of a thriving trade in smuggling. As long as what they are smuggling is non-perishable, they can seemingly wind up in any country without going through customs, so establishing a few contacts who they will see every few months and taking things to and from each of them could generate a lot of money. You could even include that Ryouga is so strong because of a family training program to increase the amount of loot he can carry from contact to contact when he is old enough to join the family business.

The biggest difference in your version of the story, I think, would be how they handle the Amazons. If Ranma got the Kiss of Marriage instead of the Kiss of Death(It may not be officially named that in canon, but it is an obviously different kiss from the kiss of death and this time you didn't have somone in the background who knew what was going on to explain things), then he wouldn't be chased out of the village. Even if he ran, unless you want to have Shampoo at this point understand no Japanese, she would catch up to him and explain things pretty fast, instead of catching up and trying to kill him like in canon. As for the curses, I prefer the explanation that using a different spring doesn't replace your curse, it mixes them. In canon, the instant packets prevent a change once, but they are very temporary magic that may work only because they are temporary. In the only canon event of mixing springs, with Taro, adding another spring just mixes into his curse. It is possible that it did so because his curse is already so mixed, or because he wanted to be even more cursed, but this could also be taken as evidence that if they had ever gotten ahold of some Nanichuan, you would have had a duck-boy, a pig-boy, a panda-man, and a hermaphrodite. The guide sent them some Nannichuan either because he did not know this, or as a gift for Akane so they could have matching curses, or because he just doesn't like them.

Something I am using in my own story is that the springs choose the curse a person gets, and that they won't allow you to be cured until you have resolved whatever issues they cursed you for(Ranma's unhealthy suppression of anything perceived as even remotely feminine in himself, though coming to terms with his female self sufficiently to be capable of being cured would make him far less interested in a cure, and Genma's greed, sloth, and impulsiveness, which he will of course never get over, etc.). Until that point, coincidence will manage to get in the way of any cures that they might otherwise find, as happens in canon, just that in my interpretation it is in universe forces causing them to always manage to destroy a cure before they can use it, not the author drawing the story out.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

...The guide, who is the official custodian of Jusenkyo, who actively tries to keep people from falling under its baleful influence, who just had his daughter saved and protected by Ranma, who thanked him for that before he went back to Japan, who explicitly told Soun that the Nanniichuan was Ranma's reward/thank you for his actions in protecting Plum and Jusenkyo, sent it out of ignorance or hatred of Ranma. Yeah, THAT makes sense.

Please don't prolytize about your own stances on curses curing vs. mixing and their underlying morality here. That's not the subject of this topic and it's not as if Ranma is even going to get a chance to see whether or not Nanniichuan would really cure him before being forced to flee to Japan anyway. I'm just after folks opinions on how Ryoga actually getting a chance to see Ranma was the girl who pushed him into Jusenkyo while the trio all were at still at Jusenkyo, rather than weeks later in Nerima, would affect their relationship. As well as how people think Ranma ending up at Shampoo's village while in male form would affect both his meeting with Shampoo and his later meeting with the Tendos.

As for the Amazons, like in canon, the guide will be at Nyuchiezu with them. He identified the Kiss of Death, so why would he not be able to identify the Kiss of Marriage? He wouldn't have any reason to grab Ranma and run to protect him, though, I don't think. Also, as far as I know, at this point in canon, Shampoo truly doesn't speak a word of Japanese - note that when she arrives in Japan the first time, "girl", "boy", "kill", "love" and "where is" are pretty much the extent of her vocabulary... or are you saying that by the likely point Ranma would be "enticed" to run, Shampoo would know enough Japanese to be able to tell Ranma that she loves him?

[Crescent Pulsar R]

Well, if Ranma enters the village as a male, what's to say that Genma isn't also a man at the time? Because if one had access to hot water, then surely the other would, too. I say that because they're both in their cursed forms in canon, so, if they have access to hot water, which is a distinct possibility with the guide, then both would use it. Genma would have to be the only one splashed while they travel to the village and, seeing as they both arrived in their cursed forms in canon, it'd have to be something where the curses, which attract water to them both, wouldn't be able to get them both with cold water.

But, on the off chance that Ranma is the only human male seen eating at the table, it's hard to say. I find it understandable for why Ranma might not understand why a girl would want to kiss him while a girl -- or, in reverse, understand that there's nothing wrong/it's normal for girls to kiss each other on the cheek -- and thus why he doesn't pull away (either because he's confused or sees nothing wrong with it). However, unlike the canon, where Ryoga shoves him into the kiss, he's likely to see the kiss coming if Shampoo has to move his head in her direction and then moving her face toward his. In which case he's likely to shy away and ask/demand what's going on. And Genma could also intercept it, seeing how well his timing had been when he had come between him and Kuno during their first confrontation, before anyone could see him transform into a girl and before the blade could make direct contact. He does have a reason to keep him uninterested with other girls, after all.

There's just a lot of ifs involved.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

...I have no idea what you're talking about with your first paragraph. The reason I'm proposing Ranma and Genma came to Nyuchiezu in cursed form in the canon is because they never changed back to their true forms beforehand. In this scenario, Ranma had time to change back, but Genma didn't, because he never bothered to change back before Ryoga was tossed in to the water to boil and then he ran from the crazy naked boy attacking him and screaming.

With your second paragraph... I think you've gotten the canon's Kiss of Marriage mixed up with the Kiss of Death. Ryoga wasn't present until the second time Shampoo kissed Ranma; the first time, she got up in Ranma's face, then bent around to plant a kiss on "her" cheek, with Ranma being rather touched by the gesture (blushes and "dreamy haze overlay" in the anime, little roses around the panel's edgings in the manga)... up until the guide grabs "her" by the hand and drags Ranma off, telling him that Shampoo's just promised to track him to the ends of the earth and kill him, which nips any potential attraction in the bud.

Besides, seeing as how Genma and Ranma can't speak Chinese (or very well), Genma may not recognize what "wo ai ni" means and think it (and the kiss) are gestures of gracious defeat. Like you said, there's a lot of "ifs".

But... if it really is that big a deal, I'll just concentrate on asking people to suggest how Ryoga is likely to react to Ranma when he finally tracks Ranma down in Japan, given this scenario.

[Crescent Pulsar R]

With the first paragraph, I'm saying that your idea works against the nature of the curse, regardless of whether it's only Ranma who uses hot water or not. The idea assumes that he stayed a girl in canon, and that one or neither didn't use hot water beforehand and thus didn't need to be concerned with getting into contact with cold water while on their way to the village. After all, seeing as Ranma had access to hot water in canon (via the guide, or even from their own supplies), he'd no doubt use it (as your idea suggests), and how else can he be a girl in canon unless he was hit with cold water along the way? Besides, we see Genma picking Ryoga out of the pool right after the chase, so there's no evidence or reason to believe that Genma had been at the hut before, and that he didn't turn back into a man after the heat source and hot water that was being used for cooking food had not gone as planned. Your idea assumes a lot, and I was trying to point that out before I explored it, seeing as it'd be rude not to despite that.

With the second paragraph, I was illustrating that Ranma didn't really have the chance to avoid Shampoo's kiss of marriage in canon (because of Ryoga), as opposed to the circumstances if Shampoo were to try and give the kiss of marriage after being defeated at her village. I was exploring the opportunity and why or why not Ranma would react one way or the other, as a girl and as a guy. (Personally, his reaction in the manga, to me, is being nonplussed, not touched by the gesture.) I was showing how the kiss of marriage might not even happen, because nothing much would change even if it had. He'd still get dragged away from the village (most likely by his father, when he hears that it was the kiss of marriage from the guide), and in following how the series operates, he'd likely "defeat" Shampoo as a girl in Japan and the whole love-hate thing would ensue. Shampoo would still erase Akane's memory of Ranma, and Ranma would still tell her that he was a girl because his relationship/obligation to Akane is more important to him.

But... if it really is that big a deal, I'll just concentrate on asking people to suggest how Ryoga is likely to react to Ranma when he finally tracks Ranma down in Japan, given this scenario.

I'd say the same or worse. In canon, he blames Ranma because he believed that Ranma ran out on their man to man fight, and that was why he had gone to China, where he got cursed. In that case, even when he didn't know that Ranma had been the one to knock him off of the cliff, he didn't seem to have cooled down if he was willing to attack Ranma in his sleep... even after finding out that Ranma had acquired a curse of his own. Had he known that it had been Ranma to begin with, he might be even more angry and unreasonable, considering how he'd stew in both of Ranma's offenses (running out on their duel, and knowing that his curse was directly caused by Ranma), which would likely feed upon themselves. Ryoga's simply not much of a forgive and forget kind of person, unless he likes that person to begin with... and he doesn't like Ranma.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

...Okay, I'm just not going to pay any attention to the paragraph 1 & 2 things because I promised to drop the topics and I honestly think both of us are missing each other's point. I'd like to avoid us ending up fighting. I know what you're saying, I just... don't quite get what you're saying or why you're saying it, and I don't know if I'm really coming across clearly to you, and you're being a nice, helpful poster and I don't want to piss you off and it really doesn't matter anyway.

Alright, so, you're saying Ryoga would probably be worse than in canon. You have pretty good evidence to back that up; I do feel it makes a lot of sense and it seems believable to me that Ryoga would brood over things and work himself into an even worse fury than before.

With that in mind... what is Ryoga liable to do when he does catch Ranma in Nerima? I can't recall how it goes down in the manga off the top of my head, but in the anime, Ryoga attacks Ranma by surprise at Furinkan High after everyone is let out for the eveing, wildly throwing his umbrella around despite the crowd and then, when Ranma gets out of sight, charging clear through the school (and I mean *through*) and out the other side, getting lost.

When he finds Ranma again, he sets up a match on the school sport's grounds, chaining himself and Ranma together by the wrist so they can't get seperated again. At some point, the battle turns against Ryoga and he's displayed as being a little worried - because Nabiki has offered bets on the fight, and everybody's betting on Ranma, she intervenes and offers Ryoga "steroids" (really vitamin tablets) that he eagerly takes. With a boosted confidence, he rips up a telephone pole and starts chasing Ranma around, eventually leading them both to the zoo where he makes the mistake of calling Ranma a girl. In a fury, Ranma starts fighting back at a higher level, putting Ryoga on the defensive and getting his curse activated. Akane intervenes, trying to get Ranma some hot water, but Ryoga doesn't care and blithly throws bandanas and umbrella alike at Ranma, who happens to be right next to Akane. When Ranma grabs the umbrella and tries to get Akane to safety, Ryoga follows, cutting down the tree they're sitting in and then attacking Ranma from behind when he's trying to apologise for offending Akane, resulting in her hair being cut.

Ryoga offers for Akane to punch him to make up for it, but stalks Ranma to the Tendo dojo that night. He sneaks into Ranma's room and hisses at him to wake up so they can fight, then tries to punch him in the head when he won't wake up, then yells at him, resulting in them both being hoiked out into the garden by a pissed off Genma. Ryoga shields himself from the rain with an umbrella and fights with Ranma until Akane hits him in the back of the head with a thrown set of dumbbells. This leads to him turning into a pig and eventually ending up in the bathroom with female-Ranma, where he explains how he got cursed, attacking Ranma when he realises that Ranma really did curse him.

So... all of the above is how a relatively calm, level-headed Ryoga acts. So what's he going to do if he's even angrier and nastier than in canon?

[Crescent Pulsar R]

Hmmmm... There really isn't much that he could do differently to convey his need for revenge, although he could continue his assault after proclaiming that he would destroy Ranma's happiness. (In the manga he doesn't get lost after his surprise attack. However, for some reason, he decides to hold off on attacking any further after that declaration and arranges a duel.) How the fight would proceed from there is anyone's guess, though Ranma would probably figure out that Ryoga had a curse during that time, which might be heard by other parties (most notably Akane), instead of finding out during that nighttime attack, when they're virtually alone and out of earshot of a crowd of people. That's likely because, with him knowing for sure that Ranma was responsible for his curse (and what followed), he'd want Ranma to realize how he'd wronged him, much like he did when he blamed Ranma for running out on their man to man fight (because he was blaming that action for why he had gotten cursed, as well as almost eaten, and that's why Ranma couldn't figure out what his problem was after pointing out that it wasn't his fault that he had taken so long to get to the empty lot). At the very least he'd hint at following him to China, which could potentially open up one or more of several cans of worms in that situation.

Of course, if we follow the scenario that you gave at the start, then Ranma would already know that Ryoga is cursed. If so, it's my opinion that Ranma would try to resolve the situation with him, rather than only running away (since he'd likely be forced to leave by the other two). Though it probably wouldn't change the fact that Ryoga would eventually find him in Japan, to get his revenge, and that he might be even more angry/enraged/upset (whichever word sounds more appropriate) for having to find him again (because he eventually gets himself lost, which he perceives as Ranma running away from him... again) in addition to knowing that he was responsible for his curse.

...Okay, I'm just not going to pay any attention to the paragraph 1 & 2 things because I promised to drop the topics and I honestly think both of us are missing each other's point. I'd like to avoid us ending up fighting. I know what you're saying, I just... don't quite get what you're saying or why you're saying it, and I don't know if I'm really coming across clearly to you, and you're being a nice, helpful poster and I don't want to piss you off and it really doesn't matter anyway.

You've got nothing to worry about in that regard, even if I wasn't accustomed to people having trouble understanding what I'm saying. I accepted long ago that the way I convey ideas is in some way unconventional to how a lot of people usually interpret them.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Thank you... so, you're basically saying that, in general, Ryoga would be a lot more open about why he's pissed off at Ranma as he knows that Ranma truly is responsible, whereas before, he was relatively close lipped because he was uncertain about Ranma's responsibility even if he did place the blame on him?

And in the specific format I'm suggesting for the initial revelation, you're of the opinion that Ranma would try sincerely to make reparations? I agree with that, but at first, Ranma does not know who Ryoga is (only that he's a Jusenkyo cursed victim who attacked, justifiably, because Genma tried to boil him), he doesn't know about Ryoga's directional sense and he doesn't know that he was the one who knocked him in. It seems to me that, once Ryoga gets to Nerima and Ranma recognizes him as his "old friend", Ranma is likely to piss Ryoga off even more so by asking how Ryoga ended up at Jusenkyo and got cursed. Ranma's not being cruel or malicious, he sincerely doesn't remember knocking Ryoga off the cliff until Ryoga outright tells him, but Ryoga is, and for once not without reason, going to think Ranma is deliberately mocking him.