"Dance?"
"Yeah Ranma, why don't you ask Akane? She's such a babe" Ranma sat eating lunch with his friends contemplating the issue.
"Why would I want to go with a macho chick like her? She probably can even dance anywa-"
"Oh and you can Ranma?"
"Wha-?" Ranma looked over his shoulder just in time to see Akane's fist slamming into his face. Ranma smashed through the ceiling and flew into the blue sky.
"Hmph!" Akane dusted off her hands and turned to walk away when…
"Oh lovely Akane, Ranma has abandoned you. Fear not I, Kuno, will take you to the schools dance!" Kuno took Akane's hand in his making his promise on bent knee.
"Kuno…"Akane said softly, one hand gently on his wrist "WHY DON'T YOU JUST GO WITH RANMA INSTEAD!" Akane then threw Kuno roughly into the air.
"Honestly!" she fumed exiting the lunch room. Meanwhile Ranma was crawling out of a park lake when something landed on him.
"Why that thick, foul tempered macho UH!" Ranma grumbled pushing the unconscious body off him.
"Hey, Kuno!" Ranma muttered bonking Kuno on his head till his eyes slowly opened. Then widened.
"Pig-tailed-girl!" He shouted leaping to his knees, grabbing Ranma in a tight embrace "Come to the dance with me, my goddess!"
"NOT ON YOUR LIFE!" Ranma screamed bashing Kuno back into the lake. Squeezing out her red hair the very womanly Ranma marched off angrily down the street towards the Tendo School of anything goes martial arts dojo, his current home.
"Stupid Akane"
"Hmmm Furinkan High dance. Underage party…bring a friend and even students not of that school are allowed to attend eh?" Kagome jumped down an old well in her grandpa's shrine as she read the leaflet.
"I wonder if Inu-Yasha would come with me…" Kagome thought wistfully until a picture of Inu-Yasha, sword in hand peering untrustingly at the loud speakers entered her mind.
"Maybe not" she said to herself landing lightly at the bottom of the well. She sighed and was about to shove the leaflet into her pocket when she noticed the date. Her face lit up and she put it away. The dance was on the night of the new moon. He would be human. Kagome jumped out of the well very cheerily.
"Where have you been? You said only one day! It's been three!" Kagome's usual greeting party of four consisting of Sango, Miroku, Shippo and of course the loud mouth Inu-Yasha stood before her. Kagome's good mood was slightly dampened but not ruined.
"Sorry but if I had said I would be gone for three days then you wouldn't have let me go would you?" Kagome rebutted fiercely.
"Of course not! We don't have time for your stupid tests!" Inu-Yasha growled an annoyed expression controlling his face.
"I well I don't have time to be arguing with you! SIT!" Kagome ended the argument with Inu-Yasha being crunched into the ground.
"Why…you" Inu-Yasha snapped but Kagome was already leading Sango, Miroku and Shippo away from the clearing.
"So good to have you back lady Kagome" Sango fondly stated.
"Thank you Sango. So what are we going after today?" Kagome asked politely.
"Well we're going to go check out a supposed rather large cat demon plaguing a town not far from here" Miroku answered filling Kagome in on the details.
"Oh yeah, I can definitely sense a Shikon shard over in that direction…"
"HEY!" Inu-Yasha shouted as they disappeared from view.
"Curse her"
Ranma lay sulking on the roof watching the sunset. Akane had gotten into a weird mood. He had been whacked with a mallet three times, been sent flying twice, and had managed to be hit with any large objects at random five times by his 'lovely' fiancé. Just then Shampoo landed her bike next to Ranma.
"Nihao Ranma! Take Shampoo to dance instead of nasty Akane" Shampoo insisted smothering Ranma lovingly.
"Well…actually…I was kinda…" Ranma stuttered weakly blushing.
"Go ahead ask her! I don't care; you'll make a great couple!" Akane seemed to appear from nowhere tossing a bucket of water over them. Ranma's greatest fear appeared as he turned into a girl.
"Get off me!" Ranma cried running around the roof, Shampoo the cat grasping his shoulder. Ranma ceased the courage to grab the cat and fling it off him. Huffing he said,
"That dose it! I don't know what's wrong with you but I'm not gonna to take anyone to no stupid dance! Specially not you!" Ranma shouted letting the whole day's frustrations out. Akane took a surprised step back.
"I see…" she turned around and jumped down off the roof to the ground.
"A-Akane wait!" Ranma shouted after her.
"Shut up!" only to find a large rock being hurled in his direction. Akane stomped into the training hall then proceeded to begin her daily training with the punching bag.
"Ranma you idiot! Jerk! Jerk! Jerk!" she roared hitting the bag on every word "I HATE YOU!"
"I'll just go to the dance with someone else!" She said to herself "Maybe Ryoga…" she pondered while an un-noticed small black piglet, aka Ryoga, sat eyes sparkling joyfully in the corner
"Or maybe someone new…"
Inu-Yasha tugged playfully at Kagome's new cat ears.
"Sorry Kagome. I can't believe that cat demon was going to make you his mate by turning you into one of him" Shippo apologised.
"Yeah if it weren't for me you'd be a complete cat demon by now" Inu-Yasha sniggered.
"Get off me I'm going home!" Kagome snapped moodily slapping Inu-Yasha's hands off her ears.
"You can't!" Inu-Yasha growled grabbing Kagomes wrist.
"Unfortunately, Kagome, Inu-Yasha is right. You can't go back to your world with ears like those. Now that the cat-demon is dead they will go back to normal soon enough" Miroku tried to explain but during her rescue Inu-Yasha had said a couple of his trademark insensitive comments to Kagome and now she wouldn't have a bar of it.
"I'll wear a hat!" Kagome hissed "Let go! SIT!" Having said sit many times that day she watched Inu-Yasha slam into the ground, hard without care.
"I'll come back when I feel like it!" Kagome spat huffily walking into the wood towards the well. Once she suspected she was out of earshot she voiced her thoughts.
"I can't believe I was going to ask him to the dance! Like he would come with me anyway! I bet he'd take Kikyo!" Kagome stewed angrily. The well came into her sights and she sighed.
"Finally"
Kagome swung one leg over the side of the well however before she could jump in something grabbed her by the back of her shirt. It was Inu-Yasha.
"What dance?" Kagome glared up at Inu-Yasha but explained anyway.
"I was going to ask you to come to a dance; it's like a big celebration, with me. It's on the night of the next full moon in my world but I think I'd rather just go by myself" Kagome's true disappointment showed, and Inu-Yasha's expression grew a little softer but then her fury returned " If you don't let go of me then I'll use the 's' word again"
"Feh!" Inu-Yasha barked, his grip releasing, Kagome slipped down the well and out of sight. Inu-Yasha couldn't help a smirk as he remembered her soft black cat ears.
"They did look cute on her" he thought silently to himself, turning away from the well.
Kagome clambered out of the well and was going to head home when she changed her mind.
"I think I'll go have a milk shake" she sighed pulling her hood over her ears, still disappointed with Inu-Yasha.
Akane finished drying her hair and got dressed.
"Hey Akane" Ranma poked his head through her bedroom door.
"Hey" Akane said calmly watering a new pot plant on her windowsill. Noticing Akane's change of cloths he asked.
"Where are you going?"
"Out"
"Where?"
Ranma flinched as Akane turned her cold gaze on him. Then she left the room dropping the watering can full of water on Ranma's head. Then a sharp pain spiked in his wrist.
"Ryoga, you little cad. Get off or I'll pound you! " Ranma said to the piglet bashing it on the ground till it let go. Ranma decided to have to bath to become a boy again. Such a fuss over a stupid dance.
"Dumb girls, always being so damn emotional" Ranma pouted lowering himself into the warm bath water. Soon enough Ranma's manly physique was returned to him. He reached out for a family heirloom towel but as he pulled it off the towel rail it caught, ripping in half. Ranma stared at it worriedly.
"Great! Just what I need! A bad omen!" he complained sinking deeper into the steamy water.
Kagome checked that her hood was still substantially hiding her ears as she requested a thick shake.
"Chocolate please" Kagome ordered with a heavy sigh.
"Here's your shake miss, would you like a free chocolate bar with that?" the girl behind the counter asked politely.
"Uh…yes please" Kagome answered receiving her shake. She walked towards a free seat near a window.
"He's so arrogant and inconsiderate and-" Kagome frowned and looked over her shoulder at what sounded like someone describing Inu-Yasha. It was a girl with short dark hair, sitting by herself, drinking a slushy, a frown on her pretty face.
"Loudmouth, rude, any of these sound right?" Kagome asked a small smile growing on her lips.
"Huh?" Akane looked up from her slushy at the long haired girl leaning over the seat and grinning at her.
"If you're another one of Ranma's fiancé's…" Akane stood up glaring at the girl.
"Whoa! I've never heard of Ranma I thought the person you were describing sounded like someone I know. Sorry, my name's Kagome" Kagome quickly explained holding out her hand.
"I apologise Kagome. My name's Akane" she said shaking Kagomes hand "I was talking about my, not by choice, fiancé. His name's Ranma and well…" Akane dove into her long story about Ranma and herself and Ryoga and Shampoo and so on. Kagome listened to Akane's stories with a great deal of enjoyment then proceeded to tell Akane all about her adventures in the past with her fiery dog demon and her friend, both stories as implausible as each other, yet to the pair of girls completely believable after their experiences. They both ordered another drink and continued becoming more familiar with each other.
"And then Ranma was kissed by Mikenzo! That was his first kiss! Ha ha ha ha" Akane laughed, Kagome joining in.
"Ha ha ha ha! Hey, you sound like a pretty assertive person. But…I bet you couldn't handle Inu-Yasha" Kagome giggled.
"Ho! You have to be pretty tough to keep Ranma in line!" Akane smiled sipping some more milkshake. The two girls held a long silence then they both looked up at the same time.
"What if we traded places? I mean you go on adventures with Inu-Yasha and I live with Ranma" Kagome suggested.
"Yeah but…" Akane thought out aloud trying to imagine how to make it work.
"You go to Inu-Yasha tell him you're me. Tell him you've cut your hair. If you can shoot arrows and you know karate I'm sure you'll be fine and the others will protect you too. Finding Shikon shards may be a bit more difficult but if you just tell them to attack big demons you ought to find them." Kagome schemed, her prominent anger driving her to go through with her plans.
"That's true. Um just cut your hair, put on some attitude and hit Ranma when he's rude or insensitive. However there are a few things you must do" Akane described "There's a girl with long purple hair, if she should get cuddly with Ranma I want you to hit him. Do the same if a girl called Kodachi or Ukyo gets cuddly with him. In fact when in doubt-"
"Hit him right?" Kagome's laughed.
"You got it" Akane answered.
"Now for my rules. When I don't like what Inu-Yasha is doing I usually say sit which causes him to slam into the ground but it only works with me so you'll just have to bash him but I think your capable of doing that. You should come back for a couple of days so we can talk and abort if necessary. Oh and you'll have to live in my house for a few days and wear my cloths so you'll get my scent. Inu-Yasha will notice if you don't smell like me, he really likes my scent."
"You're scent?" Akane asked, surprised.
"Yep. Well he is a dog demon" Kagome replied.
"One thing" Kagome warned "No one must know about the portal to the past" Akane's face when serious.
"Of course"
"Here. Be very, very careful this is very important" Kagome handed Akane the shikon shard "Are you sure you want to do this…" she questioned a sudden spark of doubt filling her heart as the Shard fell into Akane's hands.
"Yes. After Ranma handling, your world sound like a breeze. I'll take good care of this shard; you needn't worry about it at all." Akane said gazing at the beautiful jewel. They stood up and left, spending the next two hours familiarising each other with their daily surroundings, getting haircuts, visiting a shrine and dojo. By the end of the day they organised to meet at the God Tree in a week's time.