Ryoga's Girlfriend Ch8

By:

DaisukiFox

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ is owned by Rumiko Takahashi and Viz media, please support the official release. Even though it's been gone for several years... -sweat drop-

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Immediately after exiting Ranma's room, Ryoga's legs felt as weak as jelly. There was no force behind them at all and that didn't help his current situation, but it was not like he was all too concerned about that, he had just boldly gone where no Hibiki has ever gone before... did that mean he was into men? Certainly not. Ranma's male figure gave him no fuzzy feelings, it only made him want to hug his stomach in pain or the same feeling that Akane's cooking would give him; both were equally as bad.

Ryoga's dazed state so heavy on him that he leaned back up against Ranma's door and leaned against it for support but since his legs have lost balance he bumped up against it and continued to slide down it as his head tilted upwards, entering his blank star gazer look, Ryoga heaved a sigh as he closed his eyes. 'This feeling, it's so familiar...' Ryoga thought, his mental voice coming out as a hollowed whisper. 'Like all those nights I kept dreaming Akane would love me... Akane...'

"Huh..." Ryoga groaned, opening his eyes as his mouth hung open slightly. 'My heart keeps beating... I'm so nervous and I feel like I'm going to tremble at any minute.' Ryoga's thought continued.

Little did he know that his performance had an audience of one, Nabiki Tendo. The brown haired girl stood; arms crossed. Though she was there that didn't necessarily mean that she was plotting something. 'One hell of a guy for one hell of a girl... or is it... hell of a guy for a hell of a guy?' Nabiki pondered before shaking her head. 'It'd probably take a few decades before anything like that would even begin to happen.'

Nabiki shook her head before walking back into her room, there was no point in standing around for something to happen. As much as he liked the idea of Ranma and Ryoga getting together; plus the fact that she would score on an overdue bet. Nabiki was still unsure of her choice, Akane was still her sister and she cared deeply for her, even if she did usually act on every chance she could to score some yen.

She groaned before sighing and shaking her head, placing her hand on her forehead she went back to her room, planning her next scene for Ranma and Ryoga; glad that Happosai, Genma, and Soun were currently at a Poke'mon convention. That gave her plenty of time to try and think of something for him.

Moving over to her closet she slides the door open and looked through the costumes she got for Ranma and Ryoga, someone had to pick them up or risk having to buy new ones. Thankful she didn't have to worry about Kasumi's outfit being wrinkled or torn in any way, but while shuffling her way through the outfits she came across a police officers outfit.

"Huh... this was the free outfit I got for buying three at that sale..." Nabiki paused as she pulled the cosplay outfit out and inspected it. "Not too shabby..." Nabiki blushed. "Even comes with a blue wig..." looked to her own brown hair and pulled at one of the ends.

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Ranma

Ranma was lost in her own world, so lost that she didn't even hear Ryoga's back sliding across the front of her door. Who could honestly blame her? Her plan on gaining a good friend rather than a love rival completely back fired with how Ryoga willingly kissed her... although that hadn't been the first time he had willingly kissed her, but there was usually a motive or some sort of deep confusion and denial after. Though that's what she had been expecting, Ryoga remained as silent as a monk who made a vow of silence.

Unable to reach some sort of answer Ranma placed her hand to her forehead, forcing something to make sense. Looking for any kind of scapegoat for this situation. Ranma even began kicking herself for not predicting this outcome, Ryoga was unstable and sensitive when it came to matters of interest. Where had she gone wrong? Or rather... did she do anything right to begin with? Could this mess have been avoided by simply continuing to live every day as she did before? Did she somehow disrupt the chaos in her life and gave birth to an even greater one? No. Ryoga may not have been the most stable person but in comparison to everyone else, he was minor in comparison. At least Ryoga was honorable and did whatever he could to keep it that way, sometimes risking his own sake for it.

Ranma, mentally at the moment was slipping very slightly as she could no longer reach any solutions or explanations for what was going on between her and Ryoga. 'What the hell is wrong with him? What the hell is wrong with me?...I'm actually thinking about trying to keep him around, even after he...' Ranma narrowed her eyes and felt a blush raising, clenching her fist she bared her fangs. 'Stop being such a girl Saotome! Stop talking like you're part of some trashy romance! Man up! Fight em' and make him say he's sorry!...wait... don't let em' say he's sorry, just kick his butt and move em' to the curve, no man kisses Ranma Saotome!' Ranma thought, trying to rail herself up, but even then she could tell it was only half-hearted compared to her usual fits.

Ranma's anger slowly died down but her scowl stayed, there was a nagging feeling in her that told her not to do any of the things she was thinking about. Shortly following this Ranma began to feel a bit of panic swelling up in her chest, the kind that would be associated with anything remotely romantic between her and Akane.

The red head turned until she was on her stomach, grabbing her pillow she closed her eyes and began bashing her head against the pillow. "Get a grip! Get a grip!" she muttered every time she made contact with the cushion. 'Damn it! Why can't I just solve this with fists? That usually works, but nooo... every nut-job in this crazy district just wants to woe me! I can't fight that with martial arts!'

Now reaching overload Ranma allowed her head to fall into the pillow, although when she did she noticed that there really wasn't any pain in her actions. She raised her head out from the pillow and blinked a couple of times, "Dang... should've focused on dat pain, probably would have kept me from thinking all these things,"she commented, sighing and turning her head to the side, when she did she could see that a faint out lining of someone's back could be seen against her door's paper-thin surface.

Immediately Ranma became aware of the possibility that Ryoga was probably near by and listening to her disgruntled fits. Though she wasn't quite ready to face him, but curiosity got the best of her and she reached her hand out, sliding the door open in one quick motion. "Alright! Look-" Ranma gasped as a huge panda toppled her over and landed on her. "Argh!" Ranma grunted as a sleeping panda landed on her, but what she hadn't noticed was that the Panda had changed his color scheme into a very famous and rather large Poke'mon; Snorlax.

"Get off!" Ranma demanded, trying to shove Genma off of her. She noticed that he didn't seem to respond, when she looked over to his head she saw a snot bubble inflating and deflating. "Argh! Stop sleeping and get off of me!" she exclaimed, using as much strength as she could to push the large cosplaying panda off of her.

"Bwa!" Genma screamed as he was shot forward and into the wall across from Ranma's room. A large thud was heard as the panda's face was comically dragged down along with its body; which for some reason floated in midair until both the face and body were on the ground level. "Oww..." read one of Genma's sign as he raised it up.

It was then that Kasumi came up form the stairs and saw what had just occurred and to her, it was a relief to see that the wall was still intact. "Thank goodness father reinforced the walls..." she sighed before smiling and going back down stairs.

Ranma sighed but was generally happy to have avoided that conversation, she was certain it might have turned out to be a discussion she might, later on, come to regret. Now that she had a seconds worth of thinking, she realized that Kodachi's and Ukyo's presence meant that she certainly had a rough time on her hands, there was still four people she had to deal with. Akane, Ryoga, Ukyo and Kodachi... there was no possible way for her to deal with all of them.

"What else is new..." Ranma sighed, once again. The Saotome child knew that she was doing way too much sighing to be healthy, by the time she reached Genma's age she might, in fact, be as bald as him; given how crazy her life was. On top of that, she was afraid to challenge a boy or address her connection to him as an issue, which should have been the very first thing she did. That's wasn't going to happen, she couldn't just abandon Ryoga, no matter how complicated things got.

Genma, finally composing himself well enough stood up and grunted, glaring at her before huffing and walking away, while scratching the side of his stomach.

Ranma in response stuck out her one tongue and dragged her eye lid down, "Nyeee...!"

After Genma left and no doubt in search of some Poke'mon food or what he'd label as Poke'mon food before stuffing his face, Ranma poked her head out from her room and checked the hallway, no one was in sight and thankfully the one she was avoiding most wasn't either. "Guess I'll just..." paused for a moment. "I don't know! Jeez!" she pouted, sitting down in her room. She wanted to leave but felt that if she went anywhere Ryoga might just be around the corner or worse... Kodachi and Ukyo. 'Probably not those two, Ryoga threw em' hard enough to send them away for a few, don't think they'll be back until tomorrow or sumthing,' Ranma pondered.

"Gah!" Ranma groaned, placing her hands behind her head and scuffing. "Maybe I'll just stay up here..." she stated, closing her eyes until it dawned on her, Ryoga slept in the same room as her now. "Of course..."

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Akane

Akane for a time sat out on the back porch, mostly to rest... after she had a good breather from her encounter she sighed and thought about the obvious interaction from Ranma and Ryoga. A part of her refused to think that Ranma could ever be interested in another boy, there hadn't even been much evidence to support this idea, besides the fact that Ranma often used her girl form to her advantage or when it came to defeating her opponents. Oddly enough this didn't ease Akane's nerves, she knew that Ranma would use her curse to her advantage but could it be that all that male teasing had some sort of effect on her or was it that Ryoga was simply special? The blue haired girl found her eyes bulging from the very idea 'T-that can't be, they're just friends...' Akane thought as she looked over her shoulder and in the direction of Ranma's room. 'right?'

Akane's breath became shallow at the thought, but why was that? Could it be that she was afraid that Ranma would never so much as hint at the idea of them being together? No. There had to be something left, there was simply too much romantic history between them for Ranma to just cast her aside, but must have been a heavy influence of sorts, but what? Was it possible that this all went back to the Kuno issue from before? How much had happened since then? Wait, could there have been any clues? In her attempt to uncover some clues Akane felt as though her mind was keeping her from doing so since not many thoughts were passing through. In actuality, she was very much aware of what had gone on between Ranma and Ryoga, but at those times she forced her mental barrier to block out the thought. Her eyes widened for a second as each thought started passing by, all the recent events and strange behavior around one another.

"Now that I think about it..." Akane blushed, remembering the dejected tone in Ranma's voice when Ryoga explained that he only viewed her as a friend, not only that, Ryoga didn't seem all too convinced by his own words.

Akane's memories played out the scene and closely emphasized the dejected look on Ranma's face. It was at the very corner of her mind but it certainly happened. If only she hadn't been so blinded by her own desires she would have known sooner, after all, she did on many occasions suspect Ranma of having an interest in other women. Now she had to worry about a man jumping into the fray? Even the fact that she had to acknowledge the fact that Ryoga might be a rival in love, which seemed like a completely surreal subject. Her mind just couldn't take the concept in, it was the equivalent of a Kuno and Mousse suddenly falling for one another.

"My darling Mousse... may the heaven's scream our names as we embrace in a never ending battle of passion and romance!" Day dream Kuno exclaimed as he held his darling long haired duck man.

"Oh, Kuno... the very universe couldn't express how much I love you..." Mousse was dipped romantically as Kuno stared down at him, gazing into his very soul, in a very cheesy romantic movie way.

Akane was pushed back into reality as her mind forced her to stop her horror picture playing out in her head. "Gah! Never do that again!" Akane shouted, bopping the sides of her head.

It was then that Kasumi was standing near Akane, shocked to see her talking to no one. "A-are you alright, Akane?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, holding onto a very confused smile if only not to make Akane anymore uncomfortable than she'd already was.

"J-Just fine Kasumi! I-I-I-"

Kasumi raised a hand, stopping her. "It's okay, I didn't see anything... I just came here looking for something, I'll just go, do that..." she finished, moving away from Akane's field of vision.

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Kuno & Shampoo

The two mismatched lover's continued to run, while Kuno was running Shampoo was being dragged along. Once they had gained a significant amount of distance Kuno whirled around and pressed himself up against a cement wall, accidentally bringing Shampoo into his arms.

"We have lost the foul demon which claims the name of Kuno..." Kuno said, his blood froze when he suddenly released who he was holding in his arms. Kuno looked down to see that Shampoo was blushing brightly with a somewhat enraged look to her face.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Why you is-" she grunted and pushed herself back from Kuno. "No touch Shampoo! No is strong!" she screamed, turning around and pouting, small anime steam poofs coming from her head as she did so.

For Kuno it was a much different story, he believed the moment she jumped back she would attempt to thrash him for getting too close. Though was met with something much more pleasant; sadly that was Kuno's version of pleasant, considering all the other things women had done to him. When he saw that she wasn't going to hurt him, he dropped his evil wards and stared at her.

"It seems that you have become accustomed to my presence, enough so as to spare me from a merciless beating..." Kuno commented.

Shampoo turned around and glared at him, which instantly caused him to raise his wards again. Shampoo seeing this sighed and shook her head, confused as to why her anger had been going away. Under normal circumstances, she would have gone over to him and taught him a lesson with her powerful amazonian abilities but instead, she pouted like when Ranma would ignore her. 'Is Shampoo crazy? Why Shampoo no beat him!?' Shampoo thought with an anger in her tone, stomping her foot down.

Kuno seeing once again that she hadn't done anything, stopped his wards but he was still very cautious. "I didn't mean to offend... I did what was needed, that foul demon maybe a vicious veil creature, but she doesn't deserve to die by your hands."

Shampoo sighed and accepted Kuno's reason, she was angrier in the fact that she had allowed herself to be taken away from a fight by Kuno. Why had she done that? Her wife mode was meant for a warrior that had earned her hand. Though she wasn't entirely opposed to the fact that Cologne wanted to make Kuno into Shampoo's perfect husband, that caused a tightening her chest, mostly because she was afraid that she was accepting Kuno, the crazy fool who chased after Ranma's girl form.

Shampoo looked over her shoulder, this time with a much gentle expression, it gave the image of confusion. What was it about this strange man that made her... so confused? Of all the things she understood about how life worked, she was being challenged by a weakling that had gotten lucky in battle. To top it off, she wasn't chasing Ranma and her great grand mother wanted him to be in the family for money... as well as making him a powerful warrior; for honor's sake.

The confused if the somewhat longing look on Shampoo's face forced Kuno to look away, mostly out of fear for what might happen between them. "Perhaps we should return to your little restaurant... no doubt the mummified woman wishes to speak to me," Kuno stated, snapping Shampoo out of her stupor.

"I-is right." Shampoo nodded, taking the initiative and going ahead of the blue thunder.

Some time had gone by as Kuno and Shampoo walked in a strange silence, neither looking to the other but still going to the same destination.

Kuno for the time was thinking about what he said before getting away from his sister, he had called himself Shampoo's future husband. That was a leap he hadn't intended to do, but he figured he must have been acting in the heat of the moment, which he was notorious for doing. The real question now was... why hadn't she brought that up? Was it that she was embarrassed about it? He couldn't very well blame her for that, but she was the violent girl with bad grammar, shouldn't she complain about that? This whole situation was eating away at him and he had no idea, all he knew was that he was honor bound to fulfill his role as Shampoo's husband. As they continued to walk, Kuno thought for a moment, could he buy himself out of this situation? Did he want to buy himself out from this situation? 'I should use the influence of my money to free myself! I shouldn't have to marry such a beau-' Kuno thought, mouth hanging open in shock as he realized what he was about to think. 'I-I shouldn't have to endure her alluring eyes-' this time, Kuno's thought gave no pause, which scared him.

'My word... am I... could I possibly...' lowering his head he grit his teeth in frustration. 'c-could I...?'

Kuno hadn't time to think further since he bumped into Shampoo who had stopped. "Wha!" Shampoo screamed as he looked over her shoulder. "Watch where you is going!" she demanded.

"Me!? It is you who has stopped!" Kuno exclaimed, pointing.

"Is because we is here, stupid!" Shampoo shouted, causing a faint blush of embarrassment on Kuno's face.

"You're here, but not for long..." Cologne stated, now standing in front of Shampoo. "We're going on a little trip... just the three of us," she smirked, making her wrinkles raise.

Inside the Nekohaten, on the preparation table Mousse had been left under, sat said duck staring out blankly, lost in a world in which there was no hope. The maddening of being caged like some sort of wild animal, even though he was technically just that, it was still very demeaning for someone who had as much pride as Mousse did... or what pride he had left after meeting Ranma and trying to claim Shampoo's love. The depths he would sink to, all just for one rude women's attention. Though he was feeling this way now, he knew there was nothing he could do about it, something about Shampoo grasped him, entangled him, sent that warm fuzzy feeling all throughout his body when he thought about her affection. Mousse was hooked and he didn't want to seek help for his love, he wanted to embrace it, regardless if Shampoo completely ignored it.

The feathered martial artist cocked his head up and scanned the area for any signs of the others, but as he did so he finally saw that the Nekohaten was completely vacant, devoid of living beings, aside from himself. Upon further inspection, Mousse looked over to the exit and saw the open sign facing towards him. 'What the...' Mousse thought as he adjusted his glasses with his wing.

On a big sheet of paper that was placed on the glass read.

"Mousse I'm using my best abilities to train the dim witted Kuno child, when you find us is when you can challenge him for Shampoo's hand, hopefully for you... she will still wish to follow the amazon code..."

Mousse's eyes widened as he quacked in fear, 'There's no way she can fall for him! I'm supposed to get her! Damn this cage!'

Suddenly the sheet changed; no doubt a trick from Cologne. "You're a master of hidden weapons artist... now you must become an escape artist."

Mousse seeing that found some hope in his world, maybe if he could escape before Kuno was properly trained he could defeat him and then claim Shampoo as his own. "I won't fail you Shampoo!" he declared, which only came out as. "Quack!"

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Ryoga

Ryoga sat on the roof of the Tendo's home, still trying to gather his thoughts but all of them returned to the red headed girl of his dreams, which pained him to realize, all the torture, all the teasing, all the humiliating jokes, defeats... how could he have fallen for her? Was the world completely insane? Or was it that he was just insane and somewhere along the line of him helping Ranma... he fell for her, there was no denying it now and it made Ryoga feel trapped.

The wind gently blew Ryoga's hair to the side, taking in a deep breath Ryoga hugged his knees and plopped his chin against them; trying to make sense of the latest events. After everything that had gone on and by how willing he was in his dream, there was no denying it. He tilted his head down casting a shadow over his eyes, gritting his teeth he bared his fangs, feeling as though his chest was bound to collapse. "W-why him... why her...?" Ryoga heaved, fighting that sickeningly sad feeling in his chest. 'E-Even if I take these feelings on... there's no way in hell I could take Ranma away from Akane... but...' Ryoga continued to ponder, 'What about my happiness? D-Don't I deserve to be happy? Haven't I lived a horribly lonely life!?' Ryoga thought as he quivered from the flow of feelings going through him like a mighty stream.

Ryoga gulped, submerged his feelings down within his consciousness. "Damn it... I'd be lucky enough to still be Ranma's friend after this..." Ryoga mumbled, now feeling his sorrow take place, making himself heavy with depression ki.

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Genma, Soun & Happosai

The three elders now sat in the living room of the Tendo home, looking through their various items. Happosai looking more closely at the pictures he had in hand, a small blush flashing against his dried up muzzle. "Those girls were so nice..." he chuckled as he saw the pictures of him being hugged by many women dressed in Poke'mon character outfits. "Being small enough to be a poke'mon sure has its benefits... not to mention all the panties I snagged..." smirked as he pulled out his second bag, seemingly out of nowhere.

Genma and Soun looked towards their master in disgust, glad that he at least only stole from the women sixteen and up. For some reason his target age, "Your perverted actions aside... it was certainly something to be fond of, I'm quite proud to know that we aren't the only older fans of the series!" Soun commented, looking through his new collectible cards he recently came across.

Genma smiled and raised his sign as he held up his Gameboy with his other hand. "And I almost won that tournament!" Genma's sign read.

"I'm aware dear friend, I'm sorry you lost to that eight-year-old..." Soun stated, lowering his head and placing his hand on his chest, tears flowing from his face.

All of them suddenly became silent as they copied Soun's posture, "Those poke'mon of yours fought bravely, Genma..." Happosai stated.

"All an all... this was quite the adventure, not to mention the free outfit change Genma received!" Soun exclaimed, smiling to his old friend since he had changed his Pikachu colors into a Snorlax's colors.

"I'm Snorlax!" Genma's sign said as he smiled.

All of them shared a hearty laugh as they leaned back with their heads arched back. That didn't last very long as they heard some stomping from the stairs. None of them got the chance to comment when Ranma; now in male form. Went storming past them, slamming the sliding doors open and moving over to the back porch.

The three poke'mon fans turned in wonderment as they sat up and followed him out, wondering where he was going, now actually paying attention to what was going on. Following closely behind them was Kasumi, who was also intrigued with why the three older males were following Ranma.

"Please tell me nothing bad is going to happen..." Kasumi said, feeling a sweat drop come from her head.

Akane who had still been sitting on the back porch looked over her shoulder to see Ranma, "Ranma! Are you-" she didn't get to finish as she saw Ranma running over to the fence, only to turn around in a mad dash and before leaping into the air and onto the rooftop

"Ryoga!" Ranma shouted an enraged look on his face as he landed in a kneeling position, raising his head he turned to look over at the lost boy.

Ryoga only half paying attention to his surroundings barely noticed Ranma until he landed, which immediately got him to stand up with shock. "R-Ranma!?"

Not giving him enough time to answer Ranma began his assault and attempted to hit the fang-toothed boy, aiming to knock some sense into him. Although he was aiming that hadn't stopped Ryoga from dodging, seeing that he did so, Ranma continued his assault, noticing that his rage was making his attacks a bit sloppy. "Hold still!"

"W-wait! Let me explain!" Ryoga shouted, evading another fist to the face by shifting his head to the side. All sense escaped Ranma, now he was in a blood rage, after Ryoga's blood. That's exactly what Ryoga needed, he needed to fear the one he fell for.

"Why should I!?" Ranma demanded, continuing. It was then that he tried to kick Ryoga in the face, only to see Ryoga duck and continue to go on the defensive. "Stop running ya' coward and fight me back!" Ranma demanded. Feeling like he was being mocked by Ryoga's constant dodging, which made him realize that he was more sluggish than he usually was. 'Damn... even when I'm angry I'm still faster than the pig-brain...' Ranma thought, then realized that he was still suffering from the effects of Ryoga's Lion's Breaking Point. 'Guess I gotta' fight em' with a handicap!'

When the quick stand still happened Ryoga took this as a time to mentally prepare him for this fight, if he wanted to defeat Ranma he knew that he would need complete concentration. "Fine Saotome! I'll make you listen!" Ryoga declared, moving into the battle and running in, calling out a battle cry.

During their exchange of fists, the other occupants of the Tendo residence made their way into the backyard, watching at a distance. Most of them deeply confused, except for Nabiki of course. Each of them looked to one another hoping to find an answer from one another, Nabiki pretending not to have a clue while the others tried to make sense out of this fight. It was sudden, random and strange... well... under current circumstances, weeks back this would have been the most normal thing in the world.

"Why are those two fellers fightin'? Ain't they friends now?" Happosai asked.

"Maybe this is how they express their friendship... I know me and Saotome has had quarrels here and there..." Soun commented.

"True." Genma's sign read as he watched the scene play out. The members of the house continued to watch, feeling that things would return to the norm thanks to a blunder caused from Ryoga.

Throughout the entire fight, the two dodged, blocked and kicked whenever possible but both seemed entirely focused now and couldn't find an opening in either's defense, which only served to further drive Ranma's temper over the hill, causing his to vent out his frustration in the form of complaints, coupled with fists.

"I try to be your friend!" Ranma shouted, trying to jab Ryoga with his elbow, but ultimately ends up missing. "I let you into my home!" shouts with a knee kick.

Ryoga quickly reacting to Ranma's moves counters Ranma's knee kick with a knee kick of his own. "I'm trying-"

"Shuddup!" Ranma continues, "I defend you and keep your secrets! Call you my rival! And when I think you have some honor in ya' you go and do something like this!" Ranma exclaims, blushing as the thought of Ryoga's lips flashing into his mind. It was then that his mind reminded him that he had brought this on himself, but his anger forced him to push that thought behind. "Argh!" he grunted.

Ryoga jumped away from a leg sweep and raised his hand, reaching for his bandanna and pulling out one of the many copies, channeling ki into it he made the bandanna as sharp as a blade, which caught Ranma by surprise and made him jump back but because he was still enraged while still having a handicap he got the front of his shirt, slashing it and leaving a long mark across his torso.

"Enough cheap tricks!" Ranma shouted as he jumped back but then as his feet touched the ground launched himself forward to spin-kick the bandanna out of Ryoga's hand, making the lost boy recoil as he groaned and tried to nurse his injured hand, taking that as his opening Ranma twirled around and forced his body to do a chestnut fist.

"Argh!" Ryoga cried, taking in a few blows before crossing his arms across his chest. The force of Ranma's blows was so intense that they pushed Ryoga back.

This wasn't good, Ryoga was on the defensive and Ranma knew that. Though he was taking the hits as best as he could that only served to only further his ambitions, he couldn't get his point across if he appeared weak to Ranma.

"Gotcha!"

Ranma now seeing his stance went to do a chestnut fist centered around Ryoga's gut, but before he could do so he saw Ryoga scream and drop his defense to shoot himself forward, sticking his finger out Ryoga caught Ranma by surprise, slamming his index finger into Ranma's breaking point. The very same breaking point that had been shot by Ryoga's, Lion's Beam Shot.

"Argh!" Ranma screamed, feeling the crippling effects of the technique hinder him but instead of falling he felt himself land in someone's hands, being dipped in a romantic way. Upon opening his eyes he noticed Ryoga looking at him, a blush across his face. "W-What're you... argh..." Ranma groaned, gritting his teeth.

"Just shut that huge mouth of yours for once, Saotome..." Ryoga said, feeling awkward about holding Ranma; while in male form, like this. "It's time I said something..."

That caused Ranma to panic but for was unable to fight the scene since his body refused to respond, even if that wasn't the case he wasn't sure if he would move away from the embrace. "R-Ranma..." Ryoga gulped, eyes wide and staring into Ranma's.

It wasn't long before a stream of cold water shot out from the direction of the porch and sprayed Ranma's head, changing him back into the pig-tailed girl. That did little to stop Ranma from listening to what Ryoga had to say, which at this point almost seemed like magnetism.

"Heh... that should help..." Nabiki commented, dressed as officer Jenny from Poke'mon; while holding a water gun in her hands. That earned her a few looks from the others, well, mostly Kasumi, Akane, and Happosai. Happosai because he was drooling over the fact of how attractive Nabiki looked in the officer Jenny outfit.

Soun and Genma, on the other hand, were wide-eyed and dumbfounded by this turn of events. Entirely speechless throughout the whole romantic ending of their battle, confused as to how this entire scenario even came to be. They were so completely at a loss that they didn't say anything.

Ranma was unaffected by the spray of cold water as it dripped down from her face, the sun's rays making her already radiant face glow in the sunlight, her damp hair making her appear even more stunning than she already was. "W-what?"

"Ranma Saotome..." Ryoga whispered, "I love you..." he stated, turning his head away and gritting his teeth. Moving her down gently he turned his back to her, knowing that she probably didn't want to have him repeating the earlier lip contact. "I-I know this is going to sound crazy... but I'm joining the others who want you..." Ryoga stated before looking over his shoulder and locking eyes with Akane Tendo. "Akane, you're now my rival..."

Akane's eyes filled with shock, and completely in unison, both she and Ranma said, "W-what?"

TO BE CONTINUED