This volume concludes the Musk Dynasty Arc, and I continue to be convinced that twenty-years-ago self was stupid AF for not liking it. We left off with Ryoga and Mousse returning to the mountain top with the Pot of Liberation. Ranma makes a move for it, but it falls into cracks that were made with all of Master Herb's ki damage. Ryoga leads Mint down there with him after the Pot, and has the strong Tiger-fellow hold the chasm open. But his strength only last so long, and Lime pulls him out (leaving Ryoga down below). But they're underestimated Ryoga, and he emerges via Bakusai Tenketsu and a geyser of hot water that's been affected by the Pot of Liberation.
Ranma jumps into the geyser and performs another Hiryu Shoten Ha, even though Herb has already defeated this skill. But it's a trick, he's using the tornado to suck in all the hot geyser water, and Herb's cool ki to pull it down into a tidal wave, which Ranma calls The Dragon's Descending Crashing Wave. Herb now defeated, Ranma thanks the other two for saving him and then asks what took them so long and chastises them (while saying that he's humbling himself. Classic arrogant Ranma. But then the entire mountain comes crashing down, and Ranma saves the unconscious Herb.
Meanwhile in Tokyo, Akane hears the news of the crumbling mountain and knows that's where Ranma went. There are all sorts of other ill omens around the house, but she has faith, and bundles up to stand outside in the cold to wait for Ranma's return. Kasumi calls her back in for a hot bath, but when she gets there Ranma, Ryoga, and Mousse are all in the soaking tub. Akane is angry at first, but softens when Ranma says that he wanted to be a man again before she saw him. He's grousing about some welcome home when Akane throws herself at him in a giant hug.
The next story arc is about a new teacher, Miss Hinako, who is allegedly amazing at keeping delinquent students in line. The thing is, when she shows up she's a little girl. But then Happosai comes along with his bag of stolen underwear, and she sucks out all his ki through a five-yen coin, citing the School of Anything Goes ultimate technique, and transforms into a gorgeous adult woman. Ranma becomes obsessed with finding out her secret. She agrees to meet him after school, but she's back in child-form by then and has the attention span of a child.
Shampoo, Akane, and Ukyo are less than pleased that Ranma's all over the new teacher. They confront him, and Akane sarcastically says that she's glad to see this sweet side of Ranma and walks away, while Shampoo and Ukyo beat him up. Kodachi, even, arrives and swears to steal back Ranma. These three confront Miss Hinako and she sucks out their battle ki. She finds Akane while she's carrying their unconscious forms, and the two go to a sweet shop where Miss Hinako confirms that they're Ranma's fiances and that means he's a womanizer and a delinquent. She also gets red bean paste all over her face because she eats like a child.
Ranma learns from Happosai that there are five pressure points he can press to make her lose this ki-sucking ability. (Happosai taught her this ability as a sickly kid, for the record, and used her ki power to stop those who were preventing him from stealing panties. Go figure.) Two pressure points are on her shoulder blade and three are around her right breast. Ranma... doesn't really think about this. He tries to perform it the next day, but is caught in the act by Akane and Ukyo and it looks like he's sexually assaulting the teacher. He later tries it from behind, and it looks just as bad. And then he tries sneaking up on her away from school, and ends up molesting a little old woman. So finally he realizes that it won't look bad if it's a girl. (Tbh, I'm kind of uncomfortable with all the boob-grabbing images. But that's Ranma-life.) The fiances decide that Miss Hinako won't recognize their battle ki if they attack her during the gym class basketball game. Kodachi and Shampoo put on clever disguises (aka, don glasses) and join the Furinkan students, and Ukyo asks Miss Hinako to play. Ranma, unaware of this plan, turns into girl form in order to play as well, with the intent to hit her pressure points.
What ensues is one of the longest repetitive battles I've seen in Ranma, where he repeatedly fails, and Hinako switches from child to adult form over and over again as she sucks ki and then blasts it at him. When it looks like he's lost completely, he comes back in boy form (still wearing girls' gym shorts, which is mortifying until he changes) and he puts the basketball net rim over child Hinako so that when she sucks ki and turns into an adult, she's stuck and he can hit the pressure points. Happosai then tells him that he needs to do this every day for a month to make it go away completely. (sigh)
The final arc, which extends to the next volume, begins with Akane remembering a boy who saved her from a monster and gave her a charm - a little hornpipe she can wear around her neck. Later she makes curry and it's edible - but when she tries to share it everyone runs away and won't eat (especially Ranma). Watching tv, she hears the news of monsters in a forest near Ryugenzawa and her sisters talk about having vacationed there as kids, and Akane getting lost. She realizes that her memories were real. The Tendos get a call asking for help (because martial artists deal with monsters) so she leaves in the night. The family assumes it's because Ranma was rude about her food, which they have all now tasted and appreciate, and send him to bring her back.
Akane arrives in Ryugenzawa to offer assistance, and runs into a boy who saves her from a monster. He warns her to leave because his traps are all over the forest, and then he falls into one. So she takes him back to his home (and remembers that she did this when they were kids). She asks if he gave her the hornpipe and he says no. Later, he's out and about and runs into Ranma, who asks if he's seen a woman. No, he says, he hasn't. When he gets home, his sick grandfather reminds him that she's there, and he feels bad for having told Ranma otherwise. He then goes to take a bath, forgetting that his grandfather told him Akane was taking a bath. They have a naked meet-cute, a la Ranma and Akane, and when he turns around she sees the scratch scars on his back and knows for sure that he's the boy who rescued her. He just, apparently, has a terrible memory. (to be continued)
I loved the ending of the Musk Dynasty arc, and Ryugenzawa is one of my absolutely favorites. The story about Miss Hinako was fun, but too long for my tastes. I still rate this a really good Ranma volume, though!