Story: Carry the Ten

Ryoga Hibiki was not, at present, in the pursuit of a girlfriend. He was a wandering martial artist, hell bent on one thing and one alone. Revenge. Revenge on Ranma Saotome. It was his fault. This curse was his fault. He turned from a kinda buff guy with good martial arts skills into a helpless black piglet with a splash of cold water. Combine this with his inability to find his way, his tendency to get lost as easily as many breathe, and you can understand why he might have this single minded devotion, to make the one that put him in that place, at that valley, into that spring... Into the ground.

Girlfriends? Hah! He had no time for such things! Besides, he could never properly guarantee he would be present for their dates. He would get lost along the way far too often to be a reliable romantic partner.

"Take me~" the woman towering over him demanded, exposing her bosom to his eyes.

You know, on the other hand, maybe a girlfriend was exactly what he needed right now to take the edge off. He had been humiliated in his most recent attempt to get revenge, and the woman he'd asked to help train him to defeat Saotome had not yet agreed to it. 

"Ah, well, it wouldn't be right..." Ryoga muttered to himself, eyes transfixed upon the bare bosom bouncing in front of him. "I mean! There is quite an age difference between us, which creates a bit of a power difference in our social dynamic, so -"

"No, no you're quite right," the woman said. Her face suddenly filled his vision. "I got quite ahead of myself there. I mean, it was like something out of a fairy tale. A lonely princess type finds an adorable little piggy wiggy, puts him in the bath and out comes the handsome prince with a really buff bod, and - " She stopped, biting her lip while she looked him up and down like he was a slab of meat. "Oooh~ You're a bad girl Akari Unryu. Bad naughty girl who must be punished."

"C-Can I have some clothes?" Ryoga asked. He was starting to feel like his head was boiling, and his hands could only cover so much. Luckily she seemed to be on board with that, and left the room for him to think about things. Ryoga sank back into the bath, letting out a big sigh of relief.

Though when he closed his eyes, he remembered what her lips felt like. Akari, wasn't it? Yeah, that's the name she'd used while speaking to him. She seemed nice. Looking around the room, there was an unusual amount of pig themed memorabilia. The taps looked like pigs, the soap looked like a pig, there was a pig mosaic on the wall, the floor had pig headed tiling...

And when Akari returned, she had a piggy towel and a piggy shirt for him to wear, as well as some overalls.

"Sorry," she said. "Um, I don't think my grandfather's clothes would fit you very well, and mine wouldn't either."

"It's fine," Ryoga said. "I normally try to bring a bag full of clothes with me in case I transform."

She then sat on the stool as if waiting for him to emerge from the bath.

"Um..." Ryoga muttered. "Can I have some privacy to change?"

"Alright, fine," Akari sighed, and left the room long enough for him to towel off and change. "But you're not leaving without filling me in on what's going on with you, alright?"

=====

Oh gosh Akari, oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh! After all this time you've finally found him. Mister Right! Deep breath now, deep breath.Apparently he didn't like you throwing yourself at him. Never mind the fact that he was somehow cuter in his boy form than he was as a pig.

Which should be impossible, by the way. His pig form was so wide eyed and cute and helpless and she wanted to cuddle into it forever, but - But she wanted to ride that boy from dawn to dusk. Oh! She had it bad. Oh, she had it so bad!

It was making her feel a little awkward for teasing Akane about her relationship with that boy Ranma. It was clear they were about the same age, but - Mmmf, that boy got her motor rolling like nobody ever had! She'd give up the farm, she'd give up pigs, if only she could get mounted by that boy just once!

Deep breath. Calm down, calm down. First, convince him to date you. Then the fun can happen after you've been on a few dates. Yes, that is what normal people do. Granted, normal people cannot turn into pigs and back into a boy when dunked in hot water...

Which got her mind working overtime. Jusenkyo. It had to be that, right? Akane had mentioned it before when talking about Ranma, so... It must be that. Good gracious, what a peculiar coincidence! Akari peered outside. It was raining pretty heavily out there. If she remembered the forecast right, it would be raining all night, which meant... She'd better find him a place to sleep.

The door opened, and Akari instantly forgot every other place that he could sleep that was not her bed. It was one of those funny things where the clothes he was wearing were kinda ill fitting and goofy, but he looked so cute that she wanted him even more. Control yourself, Akari Unryu. Control yourself!

"Um, it looks like it's raining," Akari said. "Tomorrow morning, how about I get you a change of clothes, and I can tell you how to get where you need to go?"

"That would be nice," the boy said. "Uh, Ryoga Hibiki. It's nice to meet you."

"Akari Unryu, and this is the Unryu farm," she said. "We, uh, specialise in pigs. In particular, training them to learn sumo."

"That's kinda niche, isn't it?" Ryoga asked.

"You'd be surprised how much money there is in it," Akari said. Most people were. "Alright, sit down here. I do happen to know a bit about Jusenkyo already, but I wanna hear all about it from you."

That's right, Akari. This is much better. Much more reasonable. Talk to him like a human being. Control your lust, control yourself, and then if the two of you hit it off, then things can develop naturally from there!

=====

So, here's the thing about Akari Unryu, entirely from the Doylist perspective. It's fairly obvious that she was created by Rumiko Takahashi for one reason, and one alone: Pairing the spares. She'd probably intended to hook up Ukyo with Ryoga when she'd first been introduced - and while many fans like that, in the manga it didn't quite work out so well. The anime really did push it a lot more than the manga did. I mean, do you know what the last time they were in the same panel happened to be?

Trick question, it was that final shot of the failed wedding scene, which was also the last panel for a bunch of characters. Shampoo, Mousse, the Kuno siblings, Hinako, Nodoka, Cologne, hell that was the final page girl form Ranma appeared in.

So, okay, the time before that? Way back at the Tunnel of Cursed Love. That's the last time they interacted with each other, unless - I dunno, maybe something in the Mushrooms of Time?

... Hold on, I'm anal retentive enough to go check my collection, be right back.

Nope, my gut instinct was right on the money, Ryoga and Ukyo's last proper interaction in the series was the final panel of the Tunnel of Cursed Love, which is around about ten volumes before the end of the series. That's a long time for them to not interact, and within that time? Akari is introduced. Which was kind of the point of this little spiel.

Oh yes, Akari Unryu, she really was perfect for Ryoga, wasn't she? And that brings us to the real kicker: Akari Unryu isn’t just perfect for Ryoga—she’s suspiciously perfect. Like, “was she grown in a vat labeled ‘Ryoga-compatible waifu’” perfect. She’s got the pig obsession, the rural charm, the emotional stability, and the complete lack of interest in Ranma. That last one’s crucial. Because if there’s one thing Ryoga doesn’t need, it’s another romantic rival situation that ends with him punching a wall and getting lost in the Sea of Japan.

Now, let’s talk screen time. Akari shows up in what, a handful of chapters? She gets a mini-arc, a backstory, a sumo pig tournament, and then she’s quietly shelved. No dramatic farewell, no final confrontation, no wedding scene cameo. She’s just... gone. Which, again, screams “narrative utility.” She wasn’t meant to evolve, she was meant to resolve. Her job was to take Ryoga off the board romantically, and she did it with the efficiency of a plot device wearing a neatly wrapped bow.

And here’s the irony: for all the chaos and romantic entropy that defines Ranma ½, Akari is the closest thing the series has to a stable, functioning relationship. She and Ryoga meet, fall in love, and - presumably - stay together. No curses, no rivals, no love triangles. Just pigs. Lots of pigs.

So what does that say about Takahashi’s priorities? Maybe that she knew Ryoga’s arc couldn’t sustain another heartbreak. Maybe that she wanted to clear the deck for the final volume’s romantic free-for-all. Or maybe - just maybe - she got tired of drawing Ryoga sulking in the rain and decided to give the poor guy a break.

Anyway, back to the Watsonian view for a bit.

So two hours after we left off, Akari was face down on her bed getting absolutely ruined by the hunky lost boy, who had proven to be weak willed enough that he could not keep his hands off her body. As it turned out, once they had relaxed a bit and started to talk, they had all sorts of chemistry going on. Chemistry which had led to an arm wrestling contest between the two of them... Which Akari had handily won.

Huh? How can that be? Isn't she a cute and dainty waifu?

Hahaha! Oh, sweet summer child. How innocent, how naive. Do you know how dangerous farm girls are? The exercise that they do on the regular without breaking a sweat beats most gyms. And that's for regular, normal farm girls. This girl comes from a farm that breeds sumo pigs.

So yeah, Akari Unryu? She’s not just a cute farm girl with a pig fetish. She’s a unit. That arm wrestling win wasn’t a fluke—it was a warning. Ryoga may be the guy who punches through mountains when he’s upset, but Akari’s the girl who casually wrangles sumo-trained boars before breakfast. You think Ryoga’s strength is impressive? Try hauling a 300-kilo pig out of a mud pit while it’s trying to reenact the Battle of Sekigahara.

And that’s the thing! Once you get past the surface-level “aww, she loves pigs” shtick, Akari’s got layers. She’s got grit. She’s got discipline. She’s got the kind of quiet, unshakable confidence that Ryoga desperately needs in his life. Because let’s face it: Ryoga’s emotional compass is a broken GPS. He’s constantly lost, literally and metaphorically. Akari? She’s grounded. She’s centered. She knows what she wants and she goes after it with the same intensity she probably uses to body-check a rampaging boar.

"Take me, Ryoga! Make me squeal~" Akari shrieked while humping back into him. The emotional connection they formed was so fast, and so intense, that the two of them couldn't keep their hands off each other. Despite Ryoga's dominant position it is vital to note, they are in this posture for one reason and one alone:

It was the way they had chosen to rut thai time around.

And hey, funny thing, all of a sudden Ryoga wasn't quite feeling so murderous towards Ranma anymore. Funny, that.