Best of Iinazuke
By
Jim Robert Bader
(Standard Disclaimer,
Rumiko Takahashi, etc, etc)
"It's over, go away!"
"But I wanted to play," said Loki, the Norse God of Mischief said with a pleasing smile, "I really am hurt that you didn't think of me sooner. This is the sort of thing I live for..."
Toltir gave Loki the sort of lazy smile a cat gives its lunch and said, "That's because there are rules to this game, and you like to play outside the rules, which in some circles is called Cheating."
"Not this time," Loki smiled, "I've made a recent study of this boy and his curious set of problems...such delightful fun I could have with him and his companions, although in all fairness they do such a splendid job on their own of sowing havoc and mischief that it really does seem like such a shame to tamper. But then I began to consider that delightful chap, Genma, whom many claim to be the source of most of the boy's problems and the inspiration hit me that I could find no better way of screwing things up even further than to make one teeny, tiny little change that should start the ball rolling nicely."
In spite of himself Toltir had to admit that he found the notion intriguing. Loki was an artisan in his craft, if nothing else good might be said about him. Whatever changes he made would undoubtedly reflect on his cleverness and imagination, two qualities in which most Norse deities were sadly lacking.
"All right," the cat deity said, "What do you have in mind?"
Loki beamed benevolently and said, "Genma wears prescription eyeglasses, doesn't he? Well then, what is to prevent him from making a little mistake in the haste of one fateful moment..."
-
-
Genma ran as fast as he could dragging the yatai cart with him. It was hard to see where he was going, being pitch night and all and he started to regret his decision to take the cart now rather than wait until it was morning. He wanted to put as much distance as he could before anyone woke up back at camp and noticed that he and his son were missing.
Ranma was fast asleep under the hood of the cart, or so he thought until he heard the boy yawn and say, "What's up, Dad? Where are we going in such a hurry?"
Genma almost tripped over his own feet in his surprise. Funny, he thought, that didn't sound like Ranma..."
"Pop?" Ranma asked as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, "Where are you?"
Kuonji Akira looked down at the boy, then at the spot that should have been occupied by the yatai, then at the space next to the boy's bedroll where his Ukyo should have been resting soundly and knew without a doubt that Genma had taken her, probably intending to welsh on their agreement. The only problem was that he seemed to have grabbed the wrong sleeping child during the night, an easy enough mistake to make what with his Ucchan insisting on sleeping besides her future iinazuke.
"There now, son," Akira put his hand on the boy's shoulder, "Your father will be back soon enough once he figures out his mistake," and then, Akira silently added, he was going to teach Genma what it meant to try and chisel out on their gentleman's agreement...
"I don't understand," Ranma looked up at the father to his friend with plaintive eyes, "Why did he take your yatai and leave with Ucchan? Why did he leave me behind, Uncle Akira?"
Uncle Akira? That started wheels spinning in the mind of the adult chef. The boy was certainly innocent of his father's crimes, and yet by terms of their agreement he was also a potential son-in-law and a great martial artist in training. Perhaps it would only be a few hours until Genma came back to reclaim him, or maybe a few days until the man's conscious bothered him enough, but it would be nice to spend some time with the boy that had claimed the affections of his little Ukyo. He had always wanted a son to train in the disciplines of Okonomiyaki Ryu, so what was the harm in training the boy while seeing what sort of young man he would be when he grew older?
"Never mind about the cart, Son," Akira smiled affably, "I've already purchased a place where we can stay until your father comes back with the cart and Ukyo. It's not very far from here, and you can consider it your home for the foreseeable present..."
"YOU LOUSE!" the six year old girl before him raged, "You Jackass! You were going to take my Dad's cart and leave me behind, weren't you? How could you do that to a little kid like me? You oughta be arrested!"
"Calm down, Ukyo!" Genma pleaded, looking nervously around to be sure no one nearby was eavesdropping, especially a policeman, "It was all a mistake! Your father meant to give me the cart anyway..."
"Yeah!" Ukyo put her tiny fists to her sides and glared at the fat man who towered over her but who was quivering like an infant, "As my dowry for engaging me to Ranchan! Don't tell me you think you can just take the cart and not carry through on our agreement? What kind of a father are you? I'm gonna call a cop..."
She took a deep breath but Genma clapped a meaty hand over her mouth and said, "Let's not be too hasty! Maybe we can work something out? I'm sure your father's very worried about where you are right now, so why don't we just go back and let me explain things carefully..."
Ukyo glared at him then pried the hand off her mouth and said, "And you'll pick up Ranchan to take him with us, right?"
"Us?" Genma blinked like a deer in the headlights.
"Yeah!" Ukyo growled, "You, me and Ranchan, just the three of us and my Dad's yatai."
"Be reasonable," Genma pleaded, "I can barely manage to feed the boy I have! Two mouths to feed besides my own could break me..."
"What's the problem?" Ukyo asked, "I can cook for all of us, and we can sell Okonomiyaki to pay our way while you train me and Ranchan?"
"But there's so much more to raising my son besides eating..." Genma started to say when his eyes took on a glazed look and he almost drooled before saying, "Okonomiyaki?"
Ukyo smiled, sensing her advantage in negotiations, "Sure. I'll fire up the grill right now and show you what my Dad's been teaching me, then maybe you'll reconsider leaving me behind?"
Genma decided that keeping the girl talking was preferable to having to explain himself to her father...or to the police for that matter. He had too many brushes with the law in the past to want to risk drawing unwanted attention their way, and if the girl could cook have as well as her father...well, what was the harm in talking? Sure he could think up something that would dissuade her from going to the police. She was six years old, after all, and he was an adult, so he ought to be at a favorable advantage in thinking up something clever that would make her understand why he couldn't take her with Ranma for training...
"Wow!" Ranma stared at the insides of the recently renovated restaurant and said, "This place is yours, Uncle Akira?"
"Sure is, son," Akira beamed proudly, "Put down the lease for it the other day, which is why I was giving your father the yatai since it won't be needed any longer. The place could use some work, though, getting it ready for the customers, so maybe you can help me out like Ukyo would, sort of earn your way while we wait for your father."
"I dunno," Ranma said reluctantly, "Pop always says that hard work interferes with training. He has me work pretty hard just learning my katas..."
"Does he now?" Akira smiled, "Well, why don't I teach you some new katas that you can practice while cleaning the place up. They were taught to me by my father, handed down for generations, and I've taught some of it to Ukyo as part of her training. Want to learn? It can be like a fun game if you adjust your mindset."
"Can I?" Ranma grinned, the prospect of learning a new kind of martial art firing up his interest, even if it did involve working.
Akira reached for an apron that was hanging from a wall rack and tied it on, then tossed another that had been intended for Ukyo to Ranma and said, "First the right equipment. Having the right tools is essential in this style of training."
He then pulled out a matching set of dust-mops, one smaller than the other, and said, "Copy my motions and I'm going to teach you how we battle against dust bunnies and spiders..."
"...And then the cops'll beat you until you're senseless, then they'll throw you in the pokey, then they'll blast your name all across the presses and call you a child molestator, or something like that," Ukyo frowned, "At least I think that's what they call it. Then they'll drag you into court and sentence you to do a million years hard labor and lock you up in a very deep hole where they keep guys who try to cheat little girls, and all sorts of rats and ugly things will gnaw on your fingers and toes and you'll be sorry and sorry forever!"
Genma was as pale as a sheet, having endured the little girl's harangue for the past hour as she quite imaginatively and descriptively explained the fate that was in store for him if he even thought once about dumping her someplace and taking the yatai. Genma finished off his third okonomiyaki to give himself time to think of something other than the imagery she had conjured up in his mind, then at last he beamed a smile at her and said, "That's...very good, Ukyo-chan, and I'm sure that something bad would happen to any man who would abandon a cute little girl like you. Nice cooking by the way."
"You think so?" Ukyo smiled cutely, giving him a big-eyed stare that almost caused Genma to choke on what he had eaten.
"Uh...yeah," Genma replied after he stopped coughing and the girl had managed to thump his back a few times to clear his esophagus, "You're pretty talented all right. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if you accompanied me for a while, until your father's had time to cool off and maybe think rationally again. You have someplace you might like to go? Some relatives outside of Kyoto?"
"Nope," Ukyo said, "There's just my Dad and me, that's all the family we have in the world. But if you're really serious about going someplace...well, I'm used to traveling with Dad and the yatai. Maybe I could show you some of the sights and...like...maybe you could teach me a few things, like you taught Ranchan?"
Genma was honestly surprised, "You want to learn about Anything Goes fighting techniques?"
"Sure," Ukyo replied, "I wanna know how Ranchan does that trick bouncing off my head when I attack him. After all, if we're going to be engaged, we ought not to have secrets, right?"
"But...I'm telling you, the boy's already engaged," Genma tried to explain for the fifth time, "He's marrying one of the daughters of my good friend, Soun Tendo..."
"Oh, and that's supposed to mean I sit back while you ignore your agreement with my Dad?" Ukyo huffed, "What did this Soun Tendo give you to equal my Dad's yatai?"
"Um...his word," Genma said reluctantly, then suddenly remembered, "Ranma will also inherit the Tendo dojo when we come to live there..."
"So, in other words his family business against mine," Ukyo smiled, "I think we can work something out in the meantime."
Genma quailed as he saw that smile, thinking to himself that it was no mere child he was dealing with here but some cunning midget with a college degree in business negotiations. He sighed in resignation and said, "Well...maybe I could teach you a few moves...just to be fair about it..."
"Concentrate, Son," Akira instructed, "Visualize the target in your mind and release with both hands."
Ranma did as his Sensei instructed, hurling two handfuls of miniature spatulas at the target, being rewarded by seeing them imbed themselves in a loose cluster about the bullseye, but with one spatula actually landing inside the outer circle.
"Don't be discouraged, boy," Akira said, "It will come to you with time and practice. Pretty soon you'll be able to hit without even seeing the target with your eyes, and then I'll teach you to do special tricks like banking them around corners."
"I'll work hard on getting it right, Uncle," Ranma promised, "I'll make you proud of me yet."
"I already am, Son," Akira said and sincerely meant it. Such a well behaved, obedient child, and such a hard worker, nothing at all like his father. He was picking up techniques as fast as Akira could teach him and seemed to only need to witness something once before being able to copy it with a few efforts. A man could ask for no better son, and a worthy husband to his Ukyo, if she ever returned from Genma's foul clutches.
Akira felt a familiar stab at his side and his expression tightened slightly. Ranma picked up on it at once and said, "Ojisama, are you all right?"
"I'm fine boy," Akira winced, "It will pass, just feeling my age a little. Enough training for now, come help me open for business..."
"No, no, no!" Genma thundered, "How many times do I have to say it, girl? Relying upon weapons weakens a martial artist. You must first master unarmed techniques before you go on to learning weapon katas."
"But my father always says that having the right tools is one of the most important things about fighting..." she paused when she saw Genma scowl, knowing better than to cross her Sensei when he gave THAT look, so she sighed and conceded, "Okay...I'll do it without weapons first like you want, Uncle..."
Ranma swung the baker's peel in his hands like it was a bo staff and thrust the business end at one of the straw mannequins his Uncle had set up for the purpose of training. Ranma executed his attacks flawlessly and in a matter of seconds three dummies had been reduced to loose piles of straw and timber.
"Excellent work, Son," Akira praised from the sidelines, "You've got the technique down perfectly. Now...tell me how school was today. Are you getting by in your studies?"
"Yes, Ojisama," Ranma set the bakers peel across his back and stood relaxed and focus with no sign of laboring from his exertions, "I'm coming along with my multiplication tables, and I'm getting good marks for my History and Grammar skills, but I need some work in Foreign languages. I'm having a hard time getting the hang of my English."
Akira nodded, studying the boy before him as though he really were his father. In his school uniform Ranma looked quite dashing and handsome, all of thirteen years old and as fine a young man as could ever be asked for. The boy was showing all the signs of making an excellent businessman and had already taken over many aspects of the restaurant that Akira himself would normally handle. His cooking skills had improved a thousandfold and he could now whip out okonomiyaki with a speed that was phenomenal, and the taste was good enough that the customers kept coming back for more business.
But still there was a sadness to the boy that caused Akira to ask, "Is there anything else you want to tell me, Son?"
"When is my father coming back, Uncle?" Ranma sounded somewhat plaintive, "It's been seven years...are he and Ukyo even still alive? Why haven't we heard from them?"
"As a matter of fact," Akira remarked, flashing a post card, "I got this just the other day that was dropped through out mail slot. It's in Ukyo's hand and it says that she's fine and she's been training with your father. No return address, which probably means they're still on the move somewhere. I was meaning to tell you..."
"My father's all right?" Ranma sounded confused, "But...why didn't he stop by himself? Doesn't he want to see me?"
"I've no idea, Son," Akira said sympathetically, "I hope it's just because..."
Of a sudden the stitch in Akira's side flared to life with greater force than he had ever felt before. The large man staggered and grew pale while Ranma rushed up to his side in time to catch him as he fell, crying out, "Ojisama?"
"Better call the Doctor, Boy," Akira winced, "I think I may need some time off from the business..."
Ukyo stared forlornly at the postcard in her hands that had the address of the restaurant named Ucchan's, which she had learned some time ago had been bought and run by her father. Many times she had thought about stopping in, but always she had refused, insisting to herself that she still had so much more to learn, and that it was too much fun being on the road with Uncle Genma. The man was so easy to manipulate it was hardly any challenge, and she never had so much freedom in her life when she had been studying with her father. She wanted to come back to him and proudly proclaim her independence, to make him see what kind of a woman she was becoming, and to finally see if her iinazuke was as handsome as the guy she had spied across the other end of the restaurant counter...
Ukyo looked down at himself with disgust. She? Better correct that, she noted, glaring sourly at the sleeping Panda at her side, feeling tempted to kick him once more just for the principle of the thing. HE had finally had enough of this endless training mission. It was time to go home, provided they could find safe passage back from China. Matters had gotten awfully complicated of late due to a certain Purple Haired crazy who had been chasing them around the last two weeks since they fled from the Qing Hi district...
He sighed as he contemplated the unpleasant task of explaining things to his father. Words like, "Hey Dad, you always wanted a son..." or something to that effect came easily to mind. The problem would be in phrasing it just right so his/her old man wouldn't keel over with a heart attack. He just hoped that she would have a chance to explain to him why he had spent so many years away from the okonomiyaki business.
He also dreaded having to explain things to Ranma. The boy was going to freak and call the whole iinazuke thing off on the slight technicality that his fianc e was a major weirdo. How was Ukyo going to preserve their engagement with this sort of problem? He had to study the matter in greater detail.
First thing to do would be to retrieve the yatai from where she had stashed it, then make a stopover at the home of Uncle Genma's old friend, Soun Tendo, to get a chance at sizing up the competition...
"Hello?" a woman's light rap on the door caused Ranma to look up from the hospital bed of his Uncle to see who it was that had disturbed his meditation.
"Can I help you?" Ranma asked politely.
"That depends," the woman took a few tentative steps forward then hesitantly asked, "Are you Saotome Ranma?"
"As a matter of fact I am, lady," Ranma rose to his feet slowly and bowed to her, which she returned at once, then all at once rushed forward to embrace him.
"My son!" the woman cried and laughed as she held him tightly, "How you've grown so much..."
"M-Mother?" Ranma gasped in astonishment, holding the woman in both hands to get a better look at her, seeing a face that was only dimly remembered from his childhood.
"My son," Saotome Nodoka beamed broadly, all but glowing with pride and happiness, "Such a man you're becoming! Where is your father? And why did the people here at the hospital tell me you needed me to come here?"
Before Ranma could reply to that he heard his Uncle say, "Because I told them to call you. I'm sorry I didn't call sooner, but...I was being selfish. Your boy's been such a big help to me that I've almost come to think of him as my son, but now that I'm dying..."
"No you're not," Ranma protested, "Ojisama, the Doctors say you could have a few more good years left..."
"Don't contradict your elders, boy," Akira lightly reprimanded, "Doesn't matter if I last another year or two, I'm through with the business. I'm turning the restaurant over to you to run, it's yours until Ukyo gets back from her training."
"Restaurant?" Nodoka asked in surprise, then looked questioningly at her son and said, "Who is Ukyo?"
"Uh...mother?" Ranma hesitated, "There are some things I've got to tell you..."
"Just great!" Ukyo growled as he dragged the yatai along after him, followed by a soggy wet Panda, "This would happen when we're only a few blocks away from the Tendos! Now how are we going to explain who we are?"
Genma could not reply, of course, but he headed unerringly towards the gate of a walled off structure that had the words, "Tendo Training Hall" written on them, so Ukyo merely sighed and followed.
"Guess we need to find some hot water, and it's the only place in town we might find shelter from the rain," he said philosophically before glaring at the panda and saying, "You keep out of sight until I tell you otherwise. No sense scaring the daylights out of them if we don't have to."
Genma understood and wandered off to just outside peripheral vision. Ukyo always wondered at the man's talent for making himself obscure like that as he rang the doorbell and waited.
Only seconds later the door slid open to reveal a slender teenaged girl with short hair beaming with expectations, only to stop and look Ukyo's male body up and down before letting out a long breath and saying, "Are you Saotome Ranma?"
Before Ukyo had a chance to say anything a tall man with black hair and a mustache edged by the girl and threw his arms around Ukyo, hugging him tightly while crying tears as he proclaimed, "At last you're here! Now the families can finally be united! What a fortunate thing that you've arrived so soon after we received your post card."
"Post card?" Ukyo repeated into the man's chest, turning a sour glare to one side as she growled, "Ojisan...!"
"So Ukyo's coming back here?" Ranma asked as he studied the postcard in his hands.
"That's about the size of it, Son," Akira informed him, "She knows where the restaurant used to be located before we moved it to the Furinkan area. The card was forwarded from our old address, so I'm guessing that's where she'll show up in good time. She was a little vague about the details, but that's definitely my Ucchan's handwriting."
"Well," Nodoka said, "You must be very excited, Ranma, having at least one of your iinazuke coming back into your life."
"One of them?" Ranma looked at his mother strangely.
"Oh," Nodoka said, "Didn't your father ever tell you? On the day you were born he made a promise to Tendo-san that you would be betrothed to one of his three daughters. Of course you've never met the girls, nor have I for that matter, but..."
"Wait a minute," Ranma said, "Dad betrothed me to someone else? But that's crazy! I can't marry two people!"
"Oh my," Nodoka said, "That is a problem. I suppose we'd better see Tendo-san and straighten this out, at least so Kuonji-san's daughter isn't discounted because of a prior arrangement. Since your father took the yatai as part of the agreement that does obligate us to give her a fair hearing."
"Just so my little girl isn't cast aside for another woman," Akira glared dangerously from where he sat in bed with bandages and an IV giving him the appearance of an anemic Buddha, "I thought I raised you better than that, boy..."
"Uh...no problems, Uncle," Ranma said nervously, "I wasn't thinking of doing anything like that. It's still a couple of years before I graduate High School, so there ought to be time to work everything out, and I've been so busy managing the restaurant until you get better..."
Akira smiled. Ranma was very stubborn in his belief that his adopted Uncle would recover his full health, but both knew otherwise, and it was incumbent on him to see that the family business was passed along to Ukyo in solvent condition. Akira had no doubts about Ranma's ability to manage, especially now that his mother was here to help. Akira silently cursed his pride for not calling upon her sooner...it would have taken a great deal of stress off of himself, but as he had confessed to them both, he had been selfish, wanting to spend as much time as he had with the boy who was his son in all but blood.
"Go see this Tendo Soun," Akira said, "Then find my Ucchan and explain things for her. I'll still be waiting here for when you get back."
"I will, Ojisama," Ranma promised, feeling trapped and more than a little nervous with his mother eyeing him in a way that assured that she would be with him all the way, lending her support as he tried to untangle this matter of conflicting engagements...
"So..." Soun said gravely, "In other words this isn't Ranma, this is some other boy that you've been training in his absence."
"Girl," Ukyo corrected, now quite firmly in her right gender.
"This just gets better and better," said the shorthaired Nabiki, who was eyeing Ukyo as if trying to deny her previous enthusiastic appraisal of male status.
"I can't believe this!" the dark haired Akane glowered, "What with this curse turning you into a...boy?" she spat with distaste, "Why couldn't you just come as you were in the first place? Why did you have to lead us on, especially my sister?"
"In the first place," Ukyo said crossly, "I didn't lead anyone on, it was raining when I got here! In the second place I didn't ask for this curse, it got dropped on me by a certain panda," she spat the word to the side, "And in the third place who walked in on whom in that bathroom?"
"You could have warned me that you were going to change!" Akane flared, still flushing with embarrassment over not having knocked before entering and thus caught sight of Ukyo while in naked male form.
"Oh my," Kasumi, the oldest of the sisters, remarked, "This curse must make life very awkward for you. However do you manage?"
"Sometimes I wonder myself," Ukyo sighed, glancing down at her Chinese-style clothes, which were definitely bulging in all the right places.
The doorbell sounded again, to which Kasumi reacted with the most surprise of anyone present, "Oh my...more company? That is strange..."
"Better go see who it is, Sis," Nabiki said, "It might be Nippon's Most Outrageous Videos here for an interview."
"Ha, ha," Ukyo said miserably, wishing she could somehow make it up to the short haired girl for the obvious misunderstanding. It would be nice to have a friend close to her own age after so many years of wandering in and out of other people's lives...
Though Ranma did not want to admit it in front of his mother the whole idea of meeting one of his two iinazukes was making him feel incredibly nervous. He'd always been shy around girls, as strange as it might seem for somebody who had no trouble attracting their attention. Ranma had dated several times in Middle School, more often since entering High School, but he had never completely overcome his feelings of unease about the opposite sex. His uncle kept reminding him about the engagement practically every other day, so in a way he had felt rather bad about dating as if he were somehow being unfaithful. Uncle Akira had allowed him to date merely on the stipulation that it never went too far or became a deeper involvement.
To be certain Ranma did like girls, like a lot of things about them, but they were also a mystery, something he could not figure out for the life of him, and so mercurial that you could think you were making points in conversation only to find out you either offended or bored them, and when they got angry they could be so unreasonable, so difficult to placate.
In truth Ranma had never been able to get very close to any of the girls he dated. They generally liked him, but none of them seemed all that interesting. They all lacked a certain something that he was after, a sense of familiarity rather than mystery, a girl who might want to be his friend as well as something else besides that.
He looked up at his mother and saw her reassuring smile, hoping that maybe her presence might make things easier in case he found out that the girl was too...ordinary...or unattractive. He wanted more time to get to know his mother, to find out what he had been missing all of these years and maybe share some of his experiences with her. It had been so long since he had been with her, she was almost a complete stranger...yet something about her said that it would be worth his time to get to know her better.
The door opened and a lovely vision appeared before his eyes. Ranma caught himself gaping at the tall girl dressed like a homemaker who was smiling at him with a polite, "Yes, can I help you?"
His mother was the one to answer, "Hello, this is the Tendo residence, is it not? My name is Saotome Nodoka, and this is my son Ranma..."
"Ranma?" the beautiful girl's face brightened like the sun, "What a wonderful surprise! Your husband is here, along with someone named Kuonji Ukyo..."
"Dad's here?" Ranma blinked, coming out of his slight daze, "With Ucchan?"
The next thing he knew a blur came rushing down the hall, coming to a complete stop a few inches away from him as she interposed herself between himself and the taller girl. Ranma crossed his eyes to see her better as she gasped, "Ranchan? Is that you?"
"Ucchan?" Ranma gasped, backing up a step to take her in with a slow and astonished appraisal...
Where to go next? Ranma discovers more about his iinazuke then takes her to see the restaurant. Father and daughter are reunited, then the engagement is announced, much to Soun Tendo's displeasure. Nabiki sizes up both Ranma and Ukyo, trying to figure out a profitable angle to work from while reconciling her odd feelings for Ukyo's male form. Ranma has to get Kasumi out of his mind and concentrate on Ukyo, who is nothing like any girl he has ever imagined. Ranma is the Chef Supreme and finds Ukyo a little uncultured but nonetheless intriguing, even if her cooking skills are rudimentary. He's the one with the Spatula now, and she fights without weapons and is good enough to take him! That's a hard blow to his ego, but this Ranma is more polite and less of an egotist, having learned to be civilized from years of managing a Restaurant.
Nodoka has to take stock of Genma in light of his many crimes and shortcomings, not to mention this odd curse he's under. Soun insists that his daughters should still be considered Ranma's proper iinazuke and insists that he picks one OR ELSE! Ranma finds Kasumi attractive while Nabiki still has her eye on Ukyo, while Akane regards them both at a distance, finding the Ranma unlike the boys she is used to, which makes her all the more suspicious. By her lights he's got to be hiding some character flaw somewhere, nobody's that perfect!
Well, this may be a late(very) entry, but I hope it gets considered nonetheless. It could be fun watching Ranma try to date each of the Tendo girls to decide which one is the best fianc e, all the while trying to make sense of Ukyo, who is the TRUE fianc e in this series. He doesn't yet know about her little problem with the Amazons, of course, or the other engagements his father has foisted on him without his knowledge. Who knows where this could all wind up, but it sure would be fun getting there!
Until the, Sayonara!
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