Akane knew that cutting classes wasn't really an right now option, so she was inadvertently given some time to wonder about just what exactly had been going on while Ryoga was obvious running away. The amount of confusion that raged in her head was baffling, to think that the Hibiki boy had actually chosen to help Ranma willingly… these were the thoughts that she had been revisiting over and over again since she had learned just a fraction of what had been going on. Was Ryoga being threatened with some sort of dark secret? Is there a possibility that Ryoga might have wanted to kiss a girl, and Ranma was the only one around? She shook her head; there was no way that someone as sweet as Ryoga would demean himself by stooping to such levels.
When the time had come and the bell had rung, Akane took it upon herself to try and find the two wayward rivals; she noticed that Ranma had already gotten a head start, so there was obviously something huge at foot. She figured though that there was a distinct chance that Ranma and Ryoga had taken to the roofs; although for Ryoga, it depended on his current state of mood. If the bandanna brandishing boy had been desperate enough to escape, he probably would move about the streets rather than the roof tops.
All she could do was try to search in the obvious areas of Nerima. A nearby alleyway was the first destination that she glanced at, but that hadn't gotten her anywhere. She ran along a few of the other common alleys in order to even try and get a glimpse of them, but they weren't turning up anywhere. "Just where are they?" Akane thought to herself, panting from a lack of breath due to the speed at which she was racing.
From there she continued on her way to looking for them; it wasn't until she heard the sounds of two people fighting though that she halted her hunt. The voices were annoyingly familiar, which meant that Ranma had to be somewhere nearby, "Shampoo...?"
Akane's face turned into worry when the combat sounds suddenly ceased. She had an idea where they were coming from, but she'd rather be sure of herself when searching for someone; people did tend to move from location to location and she could be too late to see where they'd left.
"Ranma!" the blue haired Tendo sister called, but then stopped when she turned the corner and saw two bodies on the ground. One was of Shampoo and the other was the famous nut-case, Tatewaki Kuno. Her first instinct was to try and help, and so she went straight for Shampoo, completely avoiding the blue blunder.
"S-Shampoo... n-no can let Akane see...," the purple haired Amazon said, trying to stand from her dazed state.
"You can't let me see what?" Akane asked, blinking her eyes from Shampoo's almost out of the blue question. "Ranma probably won, but, he's never really one to hurt you like this...," Akane responded; trying to help Shampoo stand. Shampoo flinched though when Akane's hand was pressed against her stomach area, which seemed a might bit odd to Akane.
"Twas not the foul sorcerer who has done this... I the blue thun-," Kuno cringed; his eyes squinted tightly as he tried to stand on his own two feet. In his mind, he had convinced himself that Akane merely helped Shampoo out because she pitied those who lost to him. That was just his mind assuming that Akane's thoughts revolved around him being successful.
The blue haired girl stared at Kuno for a moment; it took a while to register what had happened. They were both face down on the ground writhing in pain, "How could you fight to a draw with Kuno?" Akane asked; shocked that things had actually gotten to this almost impossible state. Although Akane did notice that the Chinese warrior was missing her weapons.
"Shampoo no would lose if Shampoo had her chúi...," Shampoo groaned, managing to stand up on her own two feet. She didn't want to be around Akane during times like this, even if she could rub it in her face that Akane had lost out to Ryoga. Right now her gloating would just feel like a hollow victory since there was the possibly of Shampoo having to marry a Shakespearean speaking yahoo. This simply couldn't stand.
"Regardless fair maiden...," Kuno groaned, rising to his feet. "I would not have lost; I'm simply much more suited for combat than simple delicate flower as you."
That brought out a flare of anger in Shampoo, as well as a tinge of red on cheeks. The purple haired Amazon shoved herself away from Akane and stood before Kuno, and then closed her eyes and grabbed him by his collar. Shampoo's thoughts were centered on being free from this Amazonian marriage thing, at least from someone like Kuno.
"Ungh!" Kuno gasped as she had moved her hand around so that she could drag him by the back of his collar. It was really quite something to see a girl recover so fast from one of Kuno's strikes, but, she managed to come back on her feet and drag him away from his pigtailed goddess and Akane Tendo. He was really in no position to struggle, "Unhand me!" Kuno shouted.
"Quiet male who is for breeding!" Shampoo exclaimed, grunting as he knew that she had to get some answers from her great-great grandmother.
Akane was just too dumbfounded to actually say anything; to believe that Shampoo had actually lost to Kuno... it was unfathomable. She knew that the medieval speaking boy was generally good in what he did, but that should have been nowhere strong enough to best Shampoo, even without her weapons at hand. Though that had brought something to Akane's attention; she had forgotten to ask where Ranma and Ryoga had run off to! She quickly turned around and saw that Shampoo had already started dashing across the roofs, with one hand around Kuno and the other on her bike.
"Wait!" Akane called out, raising her hand, but only to retract it when she saw that Shampoo had likely already gained enough distance to be out of hearing range; that and she'd probably just ignore her in order to figure out what she had to do with having lost to Kuno.
Now that meant that she'd have to continue with trying to find the eluding lost ones on her own. Little though did she know that she was quite a bit closer than she made herself out to be...
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Ranma & Ryoga
The dumbfounded look on Ranma's face was enough to make Ryoga want to comment on how adorable the redheaded gender shifting martial artist was (This was of course only directed towards Ranma's girl form). It seemed that time would never start moving while Ranma merely watched him with a confused look.
All in all, Ranma wasn't sure what to say; was there anything to say? That's when it hit Ranma, she wasn't a girl! She was Ranma Saotome, the man amongst men! She wouldn't be bothered with someone who was troubled with his emotions, in fact, he could possibly use this to his advantage, the real question was... did she want to?
Ranma moved back and placed her hand on her head, "T-this is too messed up..." she commented, shaking her head now as well.
"Tell me about it..." Ryoga added, shaking his own head as well, and then turning to leave. "I'm gonna' go-" he said, but Ranma had placed her delicate girl hand on his shoulder; which instantly caused Ryoga to freeze in place. It almost felt like one of this static moment's people would often share with one anymore, but, it was actually only Ryoga with this response to be touched so tenderly.
"Look... ya' don't have to leave Ryoga," Ranma tried to explain, hoping to get him to work something out with Akane, and have them discuss what had been going on the entire time. That the whole romance ruse was merely a… distraction; a scheme that would free Ranma from Kuno.
"Saotome..." Ryoga growled, tilting his head downwards. "I couldn't stand to see Akane look at me with those same eyes she gives you!" he roared, turning to slap Ranma's hand away.
"Ow!" Ranma cried, retracting her hand and trying to sooth the sore skin. "Geez! You didn't have to hit so hard!"
"What could you possibly say to get me to stay, huh?" Ryoga demanded, wanting to honestly know what could be going on in that insane arrogant mind of her's to actually believe that Ryoga would stick around in order to see his crush forever hate him; all because he had a secret to hide and wasn't man enough to do it himself.
Ranma leaned back from Ryoga's question and felt herself wondering why she was pushing things to such extremes, how long had they been doing this? Why had she lost the ability to control the situation with her cunning ploys and girl side's adorable looks? The lost boy was for once in his entire time that she's known him, trying to keep away from Ranma's plans. Though maybe now wasn't the moment to be concerned about Kuno, maybe now was the time to be concerned about getting his good named cleared, and Ryoga's too!
"Look... stay and I'll make sure Akane doesn't hit you or anything, so, let me help us fix this mess I got us into and keep everyone from thinking we're a couple!" Ranma said, once again feeling that strange awkward knotting in her chest. 'Damn girl curse!' Ranma thought, shaking her head.
"A-are you serious?" Ryoga asked, keeping his eyes focused on Ranma and making sure there weren't any hidden intents.
Ranma didn't like working things out for his rival, but this was one of the rarer moments where they needed to act together; all she hoped now was that she could keep Shampoo off her just a little longer before she'd go back insistently asking her out on dates. "Yeah."
Ryoga slowly and awkwardly raised his hand for Ranma to shake, "Shake?"
The pigtailed girl raised her hand and took his in hers, "Shake."
"Ranma... Ryoga...!" Akane called out, not sounding too pleased.
Ranma and Ryoga finally took notice of someone calling out to them; they slowly turned their heads in Akane's direction and feared for the worst. They had been caught together no doubt, both Ranma and Ryoga would have liked taking it as a more subtle approach, but were Ranma and Ryoga going to have to explain themselves? Though Ryoga knew that his thinking moments weren't effective, therefore Ranma would have to step up to the plate and try to pitch a good outcome to this situation.
"What's the big deal Ranma?" Akane exclaimed, placing her hands on her hips and leaning down ever so slightly to the red head girl; a scolding look on her face as if Ranma had just been caught with her fingers in the cookie jar.
"L-Look Kane'!" Ranma said, leaning back and holding her hands out in front of her.
That did little to calm the enraged Tendo sister, "And Ryoga!" she pointed.
"Let me explain!" Ryoga cried out, feeling his heart break from seeing Akane stare at him with such cold eyes. He hadn't been expecting to actually see her soon, so, his mind was in a delicate state.
"How could you?" Akane begged, staring at Ryoga with watery eyes. "I'd expect this from Ranma, but you? ...Ryoga?"
"Look!" Ranma shouted; catching Akane's attention. The red-haired Saotome was also now forced into a situation where she would have to defend Ryoga; she was true to her word when it didn't involve dating someone or being forced into marriage. "Ryoga's only doing this because I..." she stopped, not knowing what to say. This had been much easier when Akane hadn't been aware of her plan, was it normal for her plans to fail this often? She figured that it most likely was.
"Because of what?" Akane said, her face giving off that look that said 'Continue'.
"He did this because I helped him try and confess to a girl!" Ranma blurted out, honestly picking something off the top of her head; it could have been possible that she got the idea form a soap opera that Kasumi watched called "Oh... My teenage angst!" not that she watched it on purpose, but it had been her turn to choose the TV station they'd watch that night.
Ryoga's eyes widened and he nearly lost his footing from the lame excuse that popped straight out of nowhere from Ranma, "W-wha!" Ryoga blushed, his eyes widening ever so slightly.
Akane's left eye twitched from the news; was she able to understand this? She noticed he was shy when it came to girls, so, in a sense, it did make sense. The only fact that remained was, why use Ranma to practice confessing to? "I-Is that true... Ryoga?" she questioned.
"Y-yeah, Akane..." Ryoga replied, staring at Ranma with a shocked and disturbed look. If Ranma could read his mind, she'd see that his eyes were practically shouting 'Is that really the best you could come up with you jackass?'
"B-but how did you two end up kissing... and what about Kuno?" Akane asked, now more confused than angry.
Ranma stayed still until she could continue with her fake explanation, then knew exactly when to strike. "Yeah... I had to try and convince Kuno that I was Ryoga's fake girlfriend so he could finally get lost and bother some other poor girl..." Ranma stated, knowing that make him look very underhanded but it'd save Ryoga and his secret.
"So... is that true, Ryoga?" Akane asked.
The lost boy's eyes widened before he nodded his head once and looked away, the blue haired girl turned to Ranma and stared at her before pulling her arm back and slapping Ranma across the face, causing her to fall back and hold her cheek.
Ryoga was taken by surprise when he saw the amount of strength and aura she put into the slap; her hits were almost as deadly as her cooking.
"Ah!" Ranma groaned, standing up and rubbing her sore cheek. "Whaddya' have to hit so hard?"
"That's for using my friend, and even when you helped him with romance problems you turn around and stab him in the back just to get rid of Kuno!" Akane shouted; the nerve of Ranma; to do that to her friends… Though she remembered something, why did they kiss? "And to top it off you probably took away Ryoga's first kiss too!"
That brought a nervous feeling in everyone's faces, as much as they tried to avoid the matter. That had been Ryoga's first kiss with another person, and all so Ranma could have things going his way.
"I-it's okay, Akane..." Ryoga stated, having lowered his head ever so slightly.
Now it was Ranma's turn to consider things; Ryoga had lost his first kiss... it wasn't as if Ranma got to have his first kiss with the person he wanted to. It didn't seem like such a big deal, the only thing she viewed as being a big deal itself was forcing herself into a kiss with a guy. She, of course, had been doing that all too frequent, but she was doing it to free herself from one of her current pests.
"Look it shouldn't matter that much, hell, it's not like I had the privilege to have my first kiss be with someone I actually like," Ranma added, still holding her cheek and wincing from the soreness of it all.
"So, this is what's been happening?" Akane said, crossing her arms and waiting for the two to respond.
"I'm sorry I was so weak Akane..." Ryoga said, trying to gain some dignity back.
"It's okay, Ryoga," Akane assured him, raising one of her hands up and then turning to her supposed future husband. "And if you had these kinda' problems... you should have come to me. You know I'm your friend and you know I would have helped."
That idea sent chills to Ryoga's spine. A moment where Ryoga could secretly practice telling Akane his true feelings, would she still allow that or had he been too late to try that now thanks to Ranma's plan? He concluded that maybe now wasn't the time. "Thank you..."
"Yeah, yeah... whatever," Ranma scoffed, trying to sooth her sore cheek.
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Shampoo & Kuno
Shampoo couldn't believe this; she was supposed to marry someone who managed to defeat her, but still hadn't been able to recover from their battle. This was an insult to her, an insult to her entire Amazonian people; the very nerve of the fates even pairing her with this fool. Ranma was the one she was destined to be; Ranma was the one with the strength and dexterity to match her already impressive body and warrior-like status. Now she had to deal with a groaning limp boy as well as try to figure out some way of getting out of this impossible marriage.
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"Unhand me!" Kuno cried out, "This is an undignified treatment for someone such as I!"
"Quiet stupid!" Shampoo commanded; tugging at his collar as roughly as she could.
The blue thunder choked up, gasping for some air.
There was only a little more space between her and the Cat Café, and hopefully, her wise great-grandmother would have a solution to her problem. It seemed that karma had been going in the opposite direction for her; she had given up her love for Ranma; which was something all too considerate for her. Then life gave her... Kuno. She knew if only she had her weapons she'd be able to easily best him in a test of skills.
Inside the Cat Cafe the elderly manager was stewing up some ramen for the last few customers of the day, and aside from all the things that were annoying her today such as; Shampoo taking too long on deliveries and Mousse the duck consistently quacking to be released from his steel leash.
"That great granddaughter of mine better get back soon... or I'm about to add you to the menu Mousse," Cologne warned, glaring at the white duck, whose eyes widened and went underneath the preparation tables; not wanting to be part of some dish.
The doors to the Cat Cafe opened and in came Shampoo, dragging a man by the back of his collar. Some of the customers watched in awe and some tried to avoid watching them, some even thought this was customary for women from China.
"Nice marketing technique..." a generic looking Japanese teenager stated, and then blew on his ramen.
Once they were within viewing range, the feathered Mousse gasped and stared as Shampoo was dragging another man than an unconscious Ranma (usually having something to do with magic)! Now was the moment to attack... or in this case, quack.
"Wak! Wak! Wak!" Mousse roared, having jumped away from underneath the prepping table and broken free from his leash with pure uncontrolled duck rage. His first target was Kuno; sadly that attempt was thwarted by Shampoo's back hand. "Wak!" he moaned, having slammed against the wall and sliding down it in a very comical fashion.
A few of the customer saw this and stared, the Japanese teenager from before leaned over to the other generic teenager and whispered. "Must be Chinese Style: Art of Slapping the Duck..."
"Is there a reason for this?" Cologne asked, staring at Shampoo from the back room window.
"Great-grandmother..." Shampoo said, lowering her head. "Shampoo no can get Ranma no more and Shampoo lose to-" she stopped and looked slightly hesitantly towards the boy she was manhandling.
"Ah..." Cologne nodded, then turned to Kuno and watched as he tried to keep quiet or risk being choked by his collar. Cologne turned to the customers and then back to Shampoo, "Allow me to make this a much more private conversation, great granddaughter."
Shampoo nodded.
The next thing anyone knew, everyone had seemingly magically been tossed out of the Cat Café, while Mousse was still laid unconscious from the powerful slap he received earlier. Kuno was seated while not moving very much and kept staring at Shampoo and Cologne, "I don't understand why you've brought me to this witch... but please allow me to return to much more important matters!"
Cologne shocked her head and sighed, "This doesn't look too well," she commented.
"Can Shampoo no be married to him?" The purple haired girl asked.
"There're two things you can do," Cologne said, "one: you can get the previous boy to challenge him for your honor and hand in marriage," Cologne looked to the side, knowing Ranma wasn't about to do anything to get Shampoo back with her, "two: you can accept this boy and train him to be a better-suited husband, perhaps even surpass Ranma in due time."
Shampoo's eyes widened and she considered the possibly of her great grandmother actually making Kuno a perfect member of the family, but, could she get him to go along with it? It didn't seem like he was at all willing to do anything with him, but maybe the proper way to this man's heart was the simple female persuasion. She knew that sadly she'd have to try and strike a deal with him because she wasn't about to flirt with him until he proved himself to be a real man, not some lucky smock.
"Shampoo need marry you..." She said, leaning down; face to face with the Shakespearean moron.
"Don't mock me!" Kuno exclaimed, finding strength in himself. "Only my beloved pigtailed girl and Akane Tendo may gaze upon me and my ever glorious presence, besides, you're not worthy of my strength all the times we've fought was mere coincidence," Kuno explained, his insane mind making up insane explanations for his odd train of thoughts.
"I'd watch my mouth if I were you, sonny..." Cologne stated, having looked to her side to see that Shampoo's aura was blazing higher than ever before.
"You is calling Shampoo weak?" Shampoo asked.
Kuno now found himself able to move and stand up while crossing his arms and turning his back to her like a classic street punk hero in an old movie. "I call them as I see them."
Shampoo stomped over to him, "Fight Shampoo!"
"I refuse!" Kuno shouted; feeling that he didn't need to waste his valuable free time, which seemed to be any given day of the week. He obviously didn't realize exactly how much free time he had on his hands.
"How about we strike a deal..." Cologne offered, "Perhaps we can assist you in exchange for something we want?" she suggested.
The blue thunder rose his hand up and placed it to his chin, considering the possibilities in this. He could use the assistance in gaining the pig tailed girl's affection from the evil accomplice of Saotome, but this could also lead to him ending up with an unworthy woman engaged to him. "Hmm..." he paused, "Very well, you have my attention."
"In exchange for us assisting you in whatever you need, you must have a rematch with my great granddaughter here," she said, pointing her cane to Shampoo. "Does that sound reasonable?" she asked, already knowing Kuno's type, they believed in themselves far too much, and when they'd help him she'd see that Shampoo wasn't weak, he'd see that she was indeed worthy of being a lover for Shampoo. Of course she had hoped that Ranma would have been that said lover, but law stated that Shampoo now had to chase this man 'If only Ranma had married her... she would have been able to continue a much better legacy. Perhaps Mousse would have been a better choice, and I suppose it's also my fault for limiting her to hand to hand combat as much as I have' the eldest Amazon thought.
"Sounds fair... I could use the exercise for when I defeat her once more, this time, luck shall not interfere with our battle," Kuno replied, nodding his head.
That erupted a small growl from Shampoo, to believe this arrogant man would have to be her husband.
"In exchange I need your assistance in convincing the pigtailed girl that I'm her true love," Kuno stated.
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Ranma, Ryoga & Akane
Akane had convinced herself that this whole situation was over and done with, that Ranma and Ryoga wouldn't be doing this crazy scheme anymore. They'd just accept that Kuno was a classic lost cause and move on with their lives and not even bother with him any longer. Ryoga would stay for awhile and would resume his usual lost boy status. Though she'd prefer her friend to stick around, she just hoped Ranma wouldn't get any new ideas in his head. That though brought up an interesting subject.
"So, this was all because Ryoga couldn't talk to some girl and you threatened to tell on him?" Akane asked the red headed girl standing next to her.
"Uh... yeah, that's about it Kane," Ranma lied, placing her hands behind her head, lying as well as a politician when they promise to lower taxes.
Ryoga nodded with a hum.
"So... how was kissing?" She asked, her curiosity poking its ugly head.
The two stopped dead in their tracks again, this wasn't something they'd like to remember, with what Ryoga had done last time. Ranma's face became bright red, so had Ryoga's.
"He's the one who kissed me first!" Ryoga pointed, nervously trying to place the blame on Ranma.
"What?" Ranma gasped, then turned to Ryoga and glared, "It was this perverted freak's idea to grab and kiss me!"
"That's a lie!" Ryoga shouted, baring his fangs.
"Your face is a lie!" Ranma shot back.
"That doesn't make sense!" Ryoga countered.
"Yeah, that coming from someone who gets lost all the time!" Ranma yelped; holding her arms out in the ready position; eager to strike.
Ryoga also mimicked her pose and drew his arms at the ready as well, "You're dead Saotome!"
"Stop that, both of you!" Akane shouted, standing in between them. "Just stop it, okay?" she pleaded, her hands used to put some space between them. For Ranma, her hand was closest to her neck and for Ryoga, her hand was placed on his chest.
"O-okay Akane..." Ryoga blinked, seeing her hand against his chest.
"Thank you!" Akane sighed, lowering her hands.
"Geez... all Akane's gotta' do is ask ya' and you're putty!" Ranma commented.
"Oh don't listen to him, Ryoga..." Akane said, rolling her eyes.
"Fine, you live, for now, Saotome," Ryoga warned.
Ranma stuck out her tongue in response.
Akane placed her hand on her temples and shook her head; there was definitely nothing out of the usual between these two. How she could even believe that any deep connection between Ranma and Ryoga was even possible she didn't know. The two constantly fought over the dumbest of things, and Ranma would sometimes resort to immature replies and Ryoga wouldn't have any come back beside mindless threats on ending Ranma's life; she knew that Ryoga would never actually go out and kill Ranma. It was their thing, it was their friendship to bother each other and insult one another. It still made her wonder if their usual friendship would take a different route, the fact that Ryoga had stood up for Ranma at all was unanswered.
"So, Ryoga... would you like to stick around for dinner, maybe even stay the night?" Akane asked.
Ryoga blushed and simply nodded his head, at this point he felt like a yes man to Akane.
"Are you okay with him staying the night?"
"Pfft!" Ranma huffed, "Whatever, it's not like I'm this guy's caretaker or something," Ranma replied, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.
The annoyance that Ranma seemed to bring anywhere he went was working its magic on Ryoga; the only thing he was glad about was that his secret wasn't exposed to Akane. Now everything seemed to be returning to normal, he was probably just going to spend the night there once and leave the next day. The idea was a little strange to him, since the most recent events involved him trying to run away from Akane and never returning to the world's most ludicrous district, but even those weren't the strangest of things. The one that caught him entirely off guard was that kiss, if that hadn't been it, he felt that the argument with Ranma few seconds ago wasn't as vicious as all the other time, like he wasn't into it. 'Damn you Ranma... you've confused the hell outta' me. Now I don't know what to do anymore, I have Akane but you've scared me with your stupid girl side... why did I have to kiss you? Wasn't it supposed to help? Why do I still feel confused as hell?' Ryoga thoughts centered around the kiss he had given Ranma. Each of the three martial artists walked in relative silence, the Tendo home only a few blocks away.
Beauty, could that really be the word to describe Ranma's other side? Of course, he had thought about this before, but now that Ranma's... other side was more in plain view, he sadly had to confirm that she was indeed quite something else. Considering her personality now, it was tomboy-ish, obviously since Ranma was actually born a boy. Did he find anything he could relate to with Ranma? They were both martial artists and trained and lived for the art, well, Ryoga considered himself to be a little less obsessed with the art than Ranma; Ryoga had boundaries when it came to doing whatever it took to win and as Ranma has shown him that she would go to any lengths to achieve her goal. Even if it involved messing with making someone question their view on life, the view that someone who had a girl curse could be attractive in both mind and body.
Ranma looked to her side and saw that the lost boy was staring at her, she turned her head to see that Akane hadn't even noticed, she was probably busy with her own thoughts with how she was looking up to the sky while blinking every few seconds. Then by the time she turned back to Ryoga she saw that his eyes were still fixated on her 'What the heck's he staring at? And doesn't he notice that I'm looking right back at him! I mean... how much more obvious can I be?' Ranma thought. Too many things were already bothering her, one of the them being that stupid kiss... it was really the only one that had been bothering her but now that she considered everything up until this point she realized that trying to hammer in a something into Kuno's head wasn't working out all too well. To top it all off she confused someone so far that they pressed their lips in a warm and soft passionate way, because the way Ryoga had kissed her certainly wasn't someone who was used to expressing their feelings to someone, it was someone who was in need. The fact that she could even tell the difference now was bothering her, which caused her head to shake her head.
"Stop staring at me!" Ranma shouted, turning her chest away while blushing ever so lightly.
Ryoga gasped and looked away.
Akane now finally having noticed something turned her head to them, "Huh?"
"Nothing!" both Ranma and Ryoga replied.
"Uh... look, we're here!" Ranma pointed; just a few steps to the main entrance.
Akane's eyes drifted to Ryoga and then Ranma; perhaps it was best if she looked into this matter a little more closely.
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Nabiki & Happosai
The old fossil of a sensei had finally gotten enough time to getting around to his scheming; that was until he stored his newest collection and figured something out. He noticed on his way in that Soun and Genma was busy pushing and shoving some strange device, what did he hear it was called? A Gameboy perhaps? Eh, he preferred not to pay any mind to whatever they were doing, the only things that mattered to him were new panty lace designs, girl's modeling in panties and bra sets or basically anything having to do with women doing anything that tempted him with the flesh, certainly, he was a pervert for the ages.
Next Happosai jumped up to his window, sliding it open to find that the remained relatively the same. Thanks to Kasumi's cleaning, he supposed.
Suddenly the door to Happosai's room slide open with a thud and in came Nabiki, "About time you got here," she smirked.
"Ah, here to model these for me, huh?" Happosai smiled; placing his bag down and pulling out a lacy red bra.
"As if," Nabiki rolled her eye, "I'm here to make a deal with you and if you play your cards right, I might have a model for you..."
Happosai's eyes widened and steam seemed to be poof straight out of his ears. "R-really?" the old man stuttered, this was certainly a good opportunity. There had been that one time that Ranma had posed for him but that was in order for him to get closer to a woman. It's not as if that hadn't been good, he loved live shows and would attend anything that involved woman modeling underwear, which was why he was gone a few times. He'd travel Japan searching for new shows and steal expensive designer brands and the best thing was that they'd never be able to catch him.
"Yeah... but you'll only have a model for a week, does that sound good to you, old man?" the middle sister asked.
"Okay... but what do you want me to do, it's not really my thing to go around with knowing what to do, not really my thing," Happosai retorted, placing the lacy red bra to the side and sitting down next to his new collection.
"You know how to perform magic tricks and illusions, right?" Nabiki asked, leaning against the door frame.
"I do a little here and there..." Happosai winked.
"Well, what would you say if I needed you to try and get two people to see things that aren't really happening... like... let's say..." Nabiki paused, rolling her eyes to stare off to the side. "Ranma and Ryoga?"
Happosai's eyes widened; had he, by coincidence gotten a chance to mess with Ranma and Ryoga like he had planned before? Not only that! Was he going to get rewarded with Nabiki as his underwear model? This was all too good to be true. "I see..."
"So, are you in?" Nabiki asked, knowing she hooked the old crow in.
"You've got yourself a deal, Nabiki." Happosai nodded, as a poof smoke came from his mouth and lowering his pipe.
"You've got yourself a deal..."
Nabiki smiled and closed her eyes, "I just need to make a quick call to a friend of mine..."
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Tendo home
Everyone had been doing their usual business; mulling about the house, doing chores and whatnot; all except Soun and Genma, who had gotten their hands on two brand spakin' new Game Boy. Both of which needed four batteries apiece. And if that hadn't been enough, the energy in them would drain almost instantly after an hour or three! Though Soun and Genma had saved enough to last them a day or two, which would probably be sufficient for them to go through their latest Pokémon related hobby. This left Ranma, Akane, Soun, and Genma in the dinning room; waiting around for the meal that was to come. All of them were enjoying their own thing, talking about whatever came to their mind, usually what Akane had to nag to Ranma about and Soun and Genma talking about how to get some stones in the game they were playing.
"Huh!" Genma said, watching as his Charmander evolved.
"Congratulations, Saotome," Soun said, then raised up his screen and displayed his Blastoise.
"Ah!" Genma cried, slamming his head down on the table. And even after all the training in the Pokémon world of his Game Boy, Soun had somehow kept on winning and he couldn't just switch their GameBoys since they had two different Pokémon cartridges.
"Okay... first, the TV show, then the card game, and then the game?" Akane asked, staring at her father.
"Akane... it's about the sport of it all, these creatures can use magical skills that seem to defy all logic, much like the fact that Genma can become a panda and Ranma can become a woman!" The father of the Tendo's defended, and went back to playing his game; now feeling that he could take on the Gym leaders with his stage three Pokémon.
Akane figured that it was pointless to try and talk some sense into her father; he had already gone off the deep end.
Ranma hadn't even been listening. In fact, she hadn't even been in the room. During her talk with Genma and Soun, she left. Akane stood up and decided that maybe she could help Kasumi out with the cooking, so, she too decided to take her exit; thus leaving two sad, middle-aged man-children playing a video game intended for elementary school students.
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Ryoga
The lost boy took to sitting up on the roof; he didn't like the idea of being around Ranma all too much right now. This allowed him some peace; some time away from all the chaos and hubbub was a welcomed thing now. Was this how Ranma's lived day to day? It must have been a blessing to end up walking around with no concept of where he was, but then again, being lonely wasn't exactly the best thing ever either.
"Hey pig-breathe," Ranma called, standing on the roof; eyeing him with a glare.
"Oh..." Ryoga said, glaring at the red headed girl with a pout, "What the hell do you want, Saotome?"
"Nuthin,'" Ranma replied, sitting down near the cursed lost boy. "Can't I hang out on my own roof?"
"Whatever," Ryoga scoffed. This wasn't their usual banter; everything that had happened really changed the way things were with them. This would usually be the point where Ryoga would challenge Ranma, which Ryoga had intended to do from the very beginning until he got caught up in Ranma's plans.
They sat there in a calm silence, neither finding the need to say anything.
Ranma was busy thinking things over, what would happen to them now? All these things developed between them had left Ranma so confused; to the point where he willingly kissed Ranma and without a reason, just because he wanted to. 'Guess I went too far this time... man, if that stupid Kuno would just listen! Geez! I can't get a break and now this crazy idiot's confused and I don't know what to do! And why the hell do I care if he sticks around? You'd think I'd be happy, he wouldn't come around challenging me and sleeping in Akane's bed and whatever!'
Ranma's perplexed demeanor escaped Ryoga, all he wanted to do was try and get things back to normal. Now was the moment to do so with Ranma, he needed to challenge Ranma to a fight, return everything to normal and get them back to their eternal conflict over who'd be the best martial artist, and who would claim Akane as their own.
"Look..." Ryoga tried to say, placing his hand behind his head and trying to ease the blush on his face.
Ranma slowly edged her head to him, "Yeah?"
"Foul accomplice!" Kuno roared, standing on the walls of the Tendo home.
"Huh?" Ranma said, turning to see that Kuno was standing there. "Ungh..." she groaned.
Ryoga shook his head in disappointment; he really didn't want to deal with this.
"I have one more request..." Kuno stated, narrowing his eyes. The moment he uttered those words, Shampoo jumped up to the wall and landed near Kuno; none too pleased with having to do what she had to do.
"In order to believe that you two are truly in love..." Kuno said, wishing to spit from saying that.
"Join me for a double date."