For now, proceed with caution!

"Well, I probably could fix it without any problem, but given we now know it can change how it operates in response to my magic, it might be better to just avoid tampering with it further. Granted, I doubt it will be able to do anything again after I correct it again, but it's already surprised me today, and like I said, this shit can get unpredictable on rare occasion," Akane summed up.

"...so I'm back to square one?" Ranma grunted in annoyance.

"Not really, you can still shift at will without needing to find water, unless we're around people aware of the curse, we don't want them asking questions, right?" Akane replied. "Also, remember, the curse now causes the shift subconsciously."

"And what's that got to do with it?" he asked, quirking a brow.

"If you can focus on staying male at the moment you're splashed, it should override the curse's attempt to make you shift to female subconsciously," Akane replied. "So, as long as you see it coming, or react mentally quickly enough..."

"...huh, that might actually make for some good mental training," Ranma mused, making Akane giggle.

"True, it could be useful like that," she agreed, before Ranma felt something on his shoulder, and froze, before turning to see a skeleton. He yelped and jumped back, only to see that said skeleton was held by a man.

"Oh, sorry about that, sir!" the man said, before asking Akane some medical questions. Upon resuming going on their way to the university, Akane explained that his name was Dr. Tofu, and he had been tending to her injuries since she was a child.

"...though he won't need to anymore," she noted, making Ranma turn a quizzical look towards her. Seeing it, she clarified, "As a genie, I'm pretty much indestructible now. It takes something truly esoteric to destroy us. Even if something big enough to destroy my body hit me, I'd just reconstitute inside the Lamp to come out with a rub, unharmed."

"Ah..." he nodded. "...he's skilled in martial arts, isn't he?" he questioned.

"Oh? How did you know that?" Akane queried.

"He pretty much erased all traces of his presence. And I could tell it was effortless for him, I didn't notice him until he had several chances to get the drop on me if he really wanted to," Ranma shuddered. "That's not an easy skill to learn."

"Yes, he does have an affinity for martial arts," Akeno nodded. "Though it is impressive that you could tell that much, most people would just assume they weren't paying attention or something along those lines, and you had ample reason to assume that, given our... unique circumstances were taking up our attention."

Ranma chuckled at that. "True, that did occur to me, but someone that close to me wouldn't go unnoticed normally even when I was distracted."