Chapter 1
Ranma let out a sigh of relief — one that transitioned from an octave of the fairer sex to one more befitting of a young man — as he settled into the hot water of the furo. There were some days when he couldn't wait for the end of the day to arrive, so he could be where he was now, relaxing. Not even his father could ruin this moment for him, now that said person spent most of his time at his friend's house in order to avoid being pressured into finding a job by his wife.
As he leaned back and stared up at the ceiling, he began to think about how things had changed ever since Soun's and Akane's marriage plot had failed. At that point his mother had realized exactly how complicated his situation had been, and — while she still expected him to resolve everything — she had thought it best for him to withdraw from the battlefield — so to speak — so he could have some breathing room, in addition to gaining a better perspective on the matter. With that in mind, she had decided that it would be better to find a new place to live.
The new residence in question was a modern, two-story house with three bedrooms and a modest backyard. The furnishings within were a bit more Western than he was accustomed to, though he didn't really have anything to complain about. The platform bed that he now slept on had drawers underneath and a headboard with a bookcase, which was both comfortable and convenient enough for his needs. The living room still had a chabudai, but it was joined by a sofa and a matching armchair. They only ate in the living room on occasion, eating instead at the table in the kitchen. And while the furo was only big enough to accommodate a single, supined adult comfortably, he figured that it was as big as it needed to be, and still a lot better than a shower stall, or a Western bath and shower combination.
He still lived in the same school district, but he didn't see anyone that he knew outside of school all that often, because his home was now invite-only to many of them. Considering what had happened to their last house, and how frugal — despite a few exceptions that he had noticed — his mother could be, it was quite understandable. It also provided the peace and quiet that he needed to evaluate certain things in his life at any significant length. Beyond that, he spent most of his time at home, per his mother's advice. He was usually bored as a result, but not unbearably so.
The arrangement had worked, all things considered. With the not-so-notable exception of Tatewaki and Kodachi, particular parties had come to realize that they had acted with poor judgement, and had thus respected the moderated contact that his mother had imposed. Although, for a time, he had given Shampoo and Ukyo the cold shoulder, who had — for the most part — respected his feelings on the matter, and had exercised some restraint until he had been ready to acknowledge them again. Even then, his relationship with them was still a bit touch-and-go. As for Akane...
Even after three months he didn't know exactly how to feel about what she had done. On the one hand, it hurt to think that she had needed an excuse to marry him, by going along with her father in using the nannichuan as a bargaining chip; on the other hand, that she liked him enough to be willing to go through with getting married at all sent his heart aflutter. The real problem, as he saw it, was that he had the distinct impression that she wanted to hear him admit his feelings for her before she shared her own. It bespoke of a challenge — a confusing one, to be sure, but a challenge nonetheless. The question was: did he want to win it?
It hadn't been until recently, around the beginning of their sophomore year, that Akane had begun to act somewhat distant toward him. They had been getting along as well as could be expected until that point in time, so he hadn't known what to think about her behavior... at first. A few days ago he had realized what it could mean, and that was why he needed a good soak: because the decision that he had to make had been putting a lot of stress on him.
He closed his eyes and sighed.
"The answer's obvious," he thought to himself. "I don't feel the same way about Ucchan and Shampoo as I do for Akane. I can't see myself getting married to anyone else but her. Still..."
He didn't really have much of a choice. He could tell that his mother didn't find his indecisiveness, insecurity and reservations to be all that manly, and to a point he had to agree. But he just didn't think that he was ready to commit to such a relationship with someone, in no small part due to the fact that it entailed a lifestyle that he hadn't been prepared for. Before finding out about the arranged marriage, he had never even considered the prospect of settling down with a girl and raising a family; all that he had ever looked forward to was the next martial arts challenge.
In the end, he decided that he should probably tell Akane his feelings at the next given opportunity. He might not be ready for marriage, but he could at least ensure that Akane wouldn't be driven away by doubt. He only hoped that her feelings were mutual, and that they could keep their feelings to themselves until they were ready to show them to the world without consequence. After all, certain people would cause trouble if they were convinced that a marriage between them — of their own volition — was a distinct possibility.
Suddenly sensing something strange, he sat up, opened his eyes and looked around for the disturbance. Noticing the surface of the water bubbling in front of him with increasing intensity, he focused his gaze upon it just as some kind of energy began to arc there. He leapt out of the furo without thinking, a second before something burst and sprayed much of the furo's water all over the room.
After he made his landing, he looked up from where he now knelt and saw a somewhat surprising sight: a girl around his own age was now standing in the furo that he had just vacated. While it wasn't so surprising that a girl would suddenly appear while he was in the furo, her method — as well as the fact that she wasn't someone he knew — had been unexpected.
The girl in question was naked, so he had a very good idea of what her physical proportions were, which were very attractive to his experienced eye. She had lovely green eyes and pink hair that was long enough to cover her posterior, but what really got his attention was what extended from above said posterior: a black, spade-tipped tail.
Despite that last detail, and himself, his cheeks flushed at the sight of her. He was accustomed to seeing attractive girls, which — obviously — included himself, but even his defenses needed time to adjust to someone new. That was especially the case for anyone whose beauty he put into the same league as Shampoo and his female self, and the girl before him could certainly be included among them.
"Mmmm!" The girl voiced happily, as she stretched an arm above her head. "Perfect escape!"
Her words brought his focus back to the matter at hand, and he felt ashamed for admiring someone other than Akane; not that she had much to admire, of course. Remembering that he was also naked, and considering what he could expect to happen once the girl noticed him, he decided to remain kneeling as he spoke, so he could hide his crotch with his leg instead of using a hand that he may need to use to defend himself.
"Who are you?" He finally spoke up, as he made a conscious effort to focus his gaze above her neckline. "You're not some kind of demon, are you?"
"Hm?" The girl hummed, as she turned aside to face him. Rather than the response that he had expected upon being noticed, their combined nudity didn't seem to bother her at all. In spite of the fact that they were of the opposite sex, and seemingly alone, she brightened at his presence instead of hiding, running, screaming, attacking, showing any fear or anger, or exhibiting any combination thereof. She didn't seem particularly inclined to seduce him, either, which came as a big relief.
"Me?" She responded, as she pointed at herself. "I'm Lala. I come from the planet Deviluke."
Ranma blinked his eyes as he absorbed that information, before he adopted a look of skepticism. "Wait... So, you're saying that you're an alien?"
"I guess you could say that, from an Earthling's point of view," Lala replied, as she smiled good-naturedly.
Unconvinced, because of how the girl's tail reminded him of a demon that he'd once heard about, Ranma asked, "Then how did you suddenly appear in here, if you weren't summoned with magic or something?"
Lala obligingly answered by raising an arm and showing him the strange-looking bracelet that she wore, whose shape reminded him of a rabbit. She seemed to take delight in the action. "Ta-dah! I used this, Pyon-pyon Warp-kun, which is my own invention! It may not be able to specify the destination, but it can warp each living unit a short distance!"
"Warp?" Ranma questioned. "As in teleportation?"
With a bob of her head, Lala said, "Yup. I used it from the spaceship's bathroom, and by chance I ended up in yours."
Ranma decided that — until he was sure of the truth — it wouldn't hurt to humor her claim of being an alien. It wasn't that it was too strange to believe, since he'd had a lot of experience with things that the normal, everyday person usually didn't believe in: he just didn't want to believe that he had encountered his first alien until he had enough proof.
Aside from that, there was another matter that he could address. "From the bathroom? Why would you do that?"
Lala became a bit subdued in response to his question, and turned her gaze away from his. "Well... I'm on the run, you see? I thought I'd be safe on Earth, but my pursuers were able to catch me. They were about to take me away in their spaceship..." Her eyes fell upon the bracelet that she wore. "If I hadn't used this bracelet, I'd probably be..."
With a sigh, Ranma stood up carefully and turned his back on the so-called alien as casually as he could, in order to avoid giving her a free show, and — much to his relief — she didn't try to spy his privates. He knew that he was likely going to regret his decision to help her, but he couldn't ignore her plight in case her situation turned out to be real.
"My name's Ranma," he told her, before he stepped up to the door that connected the furoba to the changing room and opened it. "And if you're going to stay here for any length of time, you're going to need something to wear."
Lala perked up at what was intimated and followed him into the changing room with a bit of a skip in her step. "Can I really hide out here?"
"You're in trouble, right?" Ranma replied, as he took two towels from a towel rack. He handed one to Lala before he took the other and secured it around his waist. Normally he would have dried himself off before donning a change of underclothes, but that was when he wasn't in the presence of a girl that he'd only met a few minutes ago. "What kind of person would I be if I were to turn a blind eye to someone in need? Besides, it's my duty as a martial artist."
By that time Lala had finished tying her towel around her torso, at which point — after adjusting her breasts a bit — she returned her full attention to Ranma and happily said, "I'm so glad you're the one I dropped in on, then! I'll try not to be too much trouble during my stay."
Ranma brushed the gratitude aside with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry about it; it's no big deal."
In reality he had some reservations about the whole thing, but he couldn't pass up the chance to look good. It wasn't that he was anything less than a good person, as far as he was concerned: he just liked feeling appreciated. Unfortunately, though he could admit that he deserved it at times, he felt that he was rather underappreciated by his peers.
After picking up his boxer shorts and undershirt, he gestured for Lala to follow him before he led her to the living room, where his mother was watching a movie on TV. Coincidentally, it was showing a scene where an alien woman, Ms. Excision, was telling Mr. Cattle that she had to return to her home planet and couldn't take him with her. His mother appeared to be rather engrossed as the drama of their emotional farewell played out.
"Mom?" Once he had her attention, after addressing her several more times, he motioned toward Lala and said, "This is Lala."
"Hi, Ranma-mama!" Lala cheerfully interjected as she raised a hand in greeting.
"She's an alien who ran away to Earth," Ranma went on casually, "and happened to find her way here."
His mother, Nodoka, blinked her eyes a few times in response.
Seeing that she was at a loss for words, he continued. "I said that she could stay here and hide from whoever's after her, so I'm going to set up the guest room and find some clothes for her to wear."
Nodoka simply nodded her head and said, "That's fine, dear."
It was some time after her son and the girl — who had been referred to as being an alien — had left the room that she shook herself out of her stupor. She felt embarrassed for having failed to act as a proper hostess, so she turned off the TV, got up, and went into the kitchen. Alien or not, they had a guest who might care for some refreshments.
"And why would she need clothes?" She eventually wondered to herself.
Upstairs, Lala had been told to wait outside of Ranma's bedroom while he got himself properly dried and dressed. When he was finished, he came out wearing the boxer shorts and undershirt that he'd had with him, with the towel hanging from his neck. Without preamble, he led her down the hall to the next room, which had been reserved for guests.
While the room wasn't dusty, due to his mother's thorough efforts, the air inside was rather stale. So, the first thing that he did upon entering was open up the window, to allow the night air to freshen things up. Being that it was mid-Spring, and that there was a light breeze, the air was a bit on the cool side; especially while their skin was still moist. However, if it bothered either of them, neither showed any sign that it did.
"You should be able to find something that will fit you in there," Ranma said, as he pointed at the room's sole furnishing, a dresser that contained some of the clothes that his mother had bought for "Ranko." He didn't know the reason for why she hadn't boxed them up and put them away, or returned them to the shops, but at least they would serve some purpose instead of taking up space that prospective guests might need.
As Lala moved toward the dresser, he went over to the closet and took out one of the two futons that had been stored inside. Once he had it laid out on the floor, a comforter and a pillow soon joined it. When he returned his attention to Lala, to check on her progress, he found her bent over an opened drawer. What he saw made him turn his head away quickly and pinch his nose closed to stem the blood that threatened to flow.
It was then that he heard a female-sounding voice yell, "Lala-sama!"
Almost glad for the distraction, he looked toward the window just as the source of the voice had begun to fly into the room through said window, as it shouted, "Are you alright, Lala-sama!?"
It was at least as big as someone's head, had a black and white color scheme with periwinkle accents, and was humanoid in shape. The coat it wore didn't do that shape any favors, however, and made it impossible to determine its gender beyond hearing its voice. Likewise, its white head was round and featureless, save for a pair of whorl-shaped eyes. Beyond that, it wore a red tie that was yellow at the end, boots, had a pair of bat wings — whose size and design belied the thing's ability to fly — on its back, and its outstretched arms were topped by hands that had pad-like features on its palms and the tips of its fingers.
There was only one response that he could give at the sight. "What in the—"
"Peke!" Lala cheerfully exclaimed, as she caught said thing in a hug. "Thank goodness! You managed to escape safe and sound, too!"
"Yes!" Peke replied in kind. "Luckily, the spaceship hadn't left the atmosphere!"
Ranma observed what appeared to be a friendly reunion. But what really caught his attention was that there now seemed to be a second... individual telling the same story about making an escape from a spaceship. And while the thing named "Peke" looked strange enough to qualify as something potentially alien, he still had his reservations about believing it.
It was at that moment that Peke noticed him. It pointed a finger at him and asked, "Lala-sama, who's that dense-looking Earthling?"
"Hey!" Ranma objected.
"He lives here," Lala replied. "His name is Ranma, and he was nice enough to allow me to hide here for a while."
Then she turned to Ranma and smiled. "This, here, is Peke."
"Nice to meet you," Peke said with its hand raised in greeting, sounding a little chastened.
"She's a multi-purpose costume robot that I invented," Lala added.
"Costume robot?" Ranma wondered aloud, just as Lala tossed her towel aside. He hurriedly turned his head away from her naked backside and thought, "Geez; I think she might have less feminine modesty than I do!"
"I leave it to you, Peke!" He heard Lala say.
"Roger!" Came the response.
A flash of light caught his attention, so he couldn't help looking out of the corner of his eye to see what was going on. But whatever had happened had transpired so fast that he only saw the end result of it: with Peke amiss and Lala completely dressed in a skin-tight outfit that was reminiscent of what her costume robot had been wearing. Said outfit was all one piece from her neckline to her feet, and the only part that didn't hug her like a second skin were the sleeves that puffed out at the shoulders and broadened from the elbow to the wrist. The outfit also had a two-tiered skirt that reached her knees, though it was more for show than modesty since it was open in the front, which left the crotch of her form-fitting outfit exposed. It was all topped off by a large hat that looked like Peke's head, including the whorly eyes, except for the fact that the bat-like wings had relocated to it.
He was reminded of that battle dōgi, and hoped that Lala's costume robot wouldn't turn out to be just as troublesome. The last thing that he needed was to have one of those things around to give him a headache. And there was no telling what a talking one might be capable of doing.
"Ta-dah!" Lala pronounced, who struck a pose in order to make a show out of what Peke was capable of doing.
"Is it too tight, Lala-sama?" Peke asked, with Ranma correctly attributing the source of the voice to the hat.
Lala mentally inventoried what her sense of touch was telling her before she gave a hum of approval. "It's perfect. I'm so glad that you came here so quickly, Peke! If you weren't around, I may not have found any decent clothes to wear!"
For some reason, Ranma recalled the time that he had borrowed some of Akane's clothes, and how she had reacted to his comments about how they had fit him — her, at the time. He shouldn't be feeling like Akane had at the moment, surely; Lala had just made an innocent comment. Yet, that didn't stop an eyebrow from ticking a few times.
Then Lala returned her attention to him and merrily asked, "Well? Don't I look great, Ranma?"
"What?" Was Ranma's response, as he returned his attention to the here and now. It didn't take him long to come to the conclusion that her outfit was weird, and thought that any one outfit in his girl form's small wardrobe would be superior. Not that he would say that to her, since it would likely give her the wrong idea unless he told her about his curse beforehand. "Oh. Sure."
Now that one immediate problem had been addressed, Peke decided to bring up a more relevant issue. "What will you do now, Lala-sama? Will it really be alright to hide here?"
Lala crossed her arms confidently. "Of course! The idea is to wait here until they give up their search of this planet and decide that I might have escaped the solar system. So long as they don't have a means to trace me here, they shouldn't be able to—"
She was cut off by the arrival of two familiar men wearing black suits, who had rushed in through the window one after the other. Ranma tensed up upon their appearance and prepared for a fight, not knowing what to expect. He noted their tails, whose tips took the shape of arrowheads instead of Lala's spade. He didn't need to see the frustration on Lala's face, as she glared at the owners of said tails, to know that they were her pursuers.
"...Find me," Lala finished, her tone strained.
"What a bother," the man with blond hair said, sounding irritated. "I should have tied you up so you couldn't roam around so freely."
Lala closed her eyes and appeared to calm down, though her knit brow said otherwise. "Peke..."
"Y-yes?" Was the costume robot's nervous response.
Lala opened her eyes and gave a half-lidded stare. "Didn't I tell you over and over again to make sure that you're not being followed?"
"...Yes." Came the pathetic-sounding reply.
Lala threw her hands up into the air and yelled, "Sheesh, you witless robot! Now everything's gone down the drain!"
"I'm sorry..." Peke apologized in a small voice.
"Well," said the dark-haired man impatiently, "are you prepared to come along with us, now?"
"L-Lala-sama," Peke spoke up, sounding reserved from being scolded but hopeful in her ability to help, "why not use your bracelet again?"
Lala made no move to comply with the men in front of her. "I can't... Each time I use it, I need a whole day to replenish the spent energy."
Apparently not liking that general line of thought, the blond man lost his patience, grabbed her by the arm, and angrily shouted, "Let's get going!"
"No!" Lala yelled, as she struggled to free herself. "Let go of me!"
It didn't take the blond man long to maneuver her into a headlock. While she tugged at the arm around her neck with the only hand she had available, she tried to pull free by using the floor as leverage. However, all that accomplished was a bit of shuffling and stomping around, which got her nowhere. And even if she did manage to escape him, the other guy stood close by to assist his partner in case one of them wasn't enough to subdue her.
In the kitchen downstairs, Nodoka looked up at the ceiling, wondering what was causing all of the thumping and bumping sounds. After a moment her face lit up, as the girl from earlier's toweled state — along with her son's — and need for clothes began to make sense. Her son was so manly!
As for Ranma, he hadn't been idle ever since the two intruders had arrived; not mentally, anyway. There had been a time — not too long ago — when he would have rushed in without thinking, but the past few months had put him into the habit of thinking about his actions more often. After all, he had issues to resolve, rather than complicate or add on to.
And that was the problem. The two men who had come to get Lala looked like thugs from some kind of criminal organization, or possibly the type of government agents who did secretive, dirty work. Even if they weren't aliens, getting involved could prove to be a lot of trouble. It would have been one thing if the encounter had taken place on some random street or alleyway, but right where he lived? That was just asking for a return visit.
In the end, however, he simply couldn't stand by and allow someone to be abducted right in front of him. Besides which, the last time that he had to save someone, after they had been abducted, they had almost died in the process. He hadn't been there to prevent their abduction in the first place, but he knew that he would have tried had he been present. And while he didn't know Lala nearly as well as Akane, it would still weigh on his conscience if he did nothing.
So, when Lala managed to bite the arm that was around her neck, thus releasing its hold, he acted. He took the moist towel that hung from his neck and snapped the end of it into the blond man's face, which made him release Lala's arm in surprise. When the other man looked in his direction, he threw the towel into his face and raced between him and his partner, taking Lala's hand in the process and pulling her along as he made his way toward the window. By the time the two men had recovered, they had already leapt through it.
"Hey! Come back here!" They heard one of the men shout, from within the room that they had just vacated.
Lala found herself being carried in Ranma's arms as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop, sometimes skipping over one entirely. Not only was this an unexpected development, but she hadn't thought that a human was capable of such a feat. Even so, she didn't expect him to get away from their pursuers, or to prevent them from taking her once they caught up with them.
He had been nice to her so far, so she was worried about his wellbeing. She had to know why he had put himself at risk, since she had only expected him to help her stay hidden. "Ranma... Why did you—?"
"Because it was the right thing to do," Ranma interjected, as he continued to focus on where he was going. "I couldn't let them do what they wanted just because it might be dangerous. Besides," he smiled self-deprecatingly, "a martial artist's life is fraught with peril. You could say that I was asking for it, what with being a martial artist and all."
He eventually found himself running down a bench-lined pathway within a park, leading Lala by hand instead of carrying her. Since he had been unable to outrun the two men by rooftop, he figured that the next best thing was to choose a good, wide-open and unpopulated area at which to fight them off. Seeing as they had been able to keep up with him, he reasoned that the potential for collateral damage was too high to fight on the street — much less the rooftops — if it could be helped.
When a ten-wheeled box truck was sent flying over his head, to land some distance in front of where he was going, he stopped running instead of jumping over it, deciding that their current location was good enough for their fight. And judging by the strength that would have been required to throw the truck so far, he had judged his opponents' abilities well, who might actually be able to present a bit of a challenge. It was hard to say for certain, at that point, since he could have done it as well — if he'd really wanted to expend that kind of energy, that is.
After he turned around to face the two men that were walking toward them, while at the same time maneuvering Lala so that she would be behind him, one of the men glared at him as they said, "Stay out of this, Earthling!"
Ranma folded his arms and grinned cockily. "You'll have to make me."
The two men ceased their approach and looked at each other. After what appeared to be a silent exchange, the dark-haired man nodded to the blond, who turned his attention to Lala and began to speak to her calmly. "Lala-sama, I beg you to stop trying," he paused, and raised his voice to express both his anger and frustration as he said, "to run away from home!"
"No way!" Came Lala's resolute response.
"You heard her," Ranma added in support. "She doesn't..." He trailed off, as the particulars of the man's words began to filter into his brain. "Wait, what?"
"I've had it!" Lala continued. "I don't care about being an heir, but I'm so sick of meeting suitors every day!"
"But, Lala-sama," the blond tried to argue, "this is your father's will."
Before Ranma could get upset about sticking his neck out for a runaway, the rest of what had been said had given him a better perspective on the matter. Actually, it sounded quite familiar: a father's child was an heir to something, and whatever plans he had for them required him to marry his child to someone. Considering how he'd tried to run from his own arranged marriage, at first, he could actually empathize with Lala. However, what kind of heir was she, to have people referring to her with the "-sama" honorific?
Lala pulled out a hand-held device that Ranma might have recognized as a mobile phone had he been more familiar with them. As it was, the clamshell-style of mobile phone was rather new on Earth, and it would be some time yet before mobile phones were as small and had a video display, so he could be forgiven for giving her device a questioning glance.
"This has nothing to do with papa!" She replied, before she flipped open her D-Dialer and pressed a sequence of buttons. When she pressed the final button, she exclaimed, "Discharge! Go-go Vacuum-kun!"
Much to Ranma's surprise, a giant, octopus-looking thing came out of the device. It had to be as big as the truck that was lying on its side nearby, and yet it had come out of something no bigger than the user's hand. In fact, both its size and sudden appearance had been enough to knock him off of his feet with an undignified yelp.
"Damn!" The blond-haired man cursed. "Another one of Lala-sama's inventions!"
"Now! Suck 'em up!" Lala directed.
The leaf shutter in Vacuum-kun's tubular-shaped mouth opened up and it proceeded to apply suction. It was so strong that the two men who had been after Lala were quickly lifted off of their feet and sucked into it, where their screams were silenced.
Ranma was suitably impressed. "That's some vacuum cleaner..."
Then he noticed that other things around him, like trashbins and benches, were being sucked up as well. In addition, he began to feel an ever-increasing tug on his own body, and his admiration changed to alarm. However, before he had a chance to do anything, the increasing suction had picked him up and he began to fly toward Vacuum-kun along with a lot of other things from the area.
"Hey!" Ranma yelled, as he spun around in a vortex while trying to avoid being hit by various objects. "You can shut it off, now!"
Lala, who had used the anti-gravity wings on her hat to fly away from the suction's effective range, couldn't hear him over the noise that her invention was making. Nevertheless, she was aware of the problem, and held a hand to her cheek as she tried to come up with a solution.
"W-what do we do, Lala-sama?" Peke asked.
"Er..." Came Lala's initial response, before she noticed how Vacuum-kun began to bulge in an unnatural fashion. "Uh..."
Since she couldn't remember how to use her invention, she could only give Peke the obvious — and ultimately unhelpful — answer. "I guess we should stop it?"
When Ranma figured out that what was about to happen was inevitable, he began to complain. "How come this sort of stuff always happens to—"
At that moment he entered Vacuum-kun's mouth, which — coincidentally — coincided with its capacity limit being reached. That being the case, Vacuum-kun exploded, and he was shot out of its mouth like a bullet from the barrel of a gun. Fortunately, with the energy of the blast being released in an unfocused manner, there hadn't been enough force to launch him very far.
Lala found him hanging from a tree branch by the back of his undershirt a minute later. She had the good grace to rub the back of her head in embarrassment as she floated in front of his dangling body. "Er... I'm so sorry! It's such an old invention that I forgot how to use it."
Ranma lifted his head up and gave her a tired look, because even when he received the seldom apology it usually didn't mean anything to the person giving it. Either the person giving it didn't mean it, or it was meant to put him into a false sense of security so they could take advantage of him in some way. That's what he came to expect, even though — in this instance — he really should have asked her why she had needed to hide in the first place.
Lala either didn't notice his expression, or didn't care, as she gratefully said, "But, thank you, Ranma. I was so glad when you defended me!"
Ranma regarded her with a searching look before he dropped his head and released a sigh. Not only couldn't he tell if she meant it or not, but it had become too uncomfortable to look at her smiling face. Instead, he turned his thoughts to the ground that was thirty feet below him, and decided to get down from his involuntary perch. A few seconds later, he made a casual landing and dusted himself off.
Lala floated downward and landed beside him, a curious look on her face. "Are you really a human?"
Ranma gave her an odd look. "Why do you ask that?"
"Because I didn't think that humans were capable of doing what I've seen you do," Lala answered.
Ranma flicked his pigtail over his shoulder and smirked, taking her comment as a compliment. "Heh. Well, if someone works hard enough at it, I'm sure they could be as good as I am." He reconsidered his words, since it sounded too easy for someone to reach his level of awesomeness. "Probably."
After Lala removed her wrecked invention from the scene with her D-Dialer, they began to walk back toward the house. Ranma had questioned the wisdom of leaving the two unconscious men behind without doing anything with them, but he had been assured that they wouldn't do anything beyond their job description, that would risk making her angry enough with them to have them discharged from service.
Which reminded him to ask for more details regarding her situation. "So," he began in an easygoing manner, "what's the deal with them, anyway? You said something about being an heir?"
Lala pouted. "Yeah. Papa wants a successor to his throne, so he keeps making me see various suitors."
Ranma stopped dead in his tracks. "Wait, did you just say 'throne?'"
Peke chose that time to remind him of her presence. "Lala-sama is the first princess of Deviluke. Her father, the king, rules over the entire galaxy."
While Ranma was now willing to believe that Lala might — in fact — be of alien origin, being the princess of a kingdom — that ruled the entire galaxy, no less — was just too much. And, yet, knowing how his luck usually went...
"It wouldn't be so bad if papa actually seemed to care about his choices," Lala continued with a sigh, sounding both frustrated and sad. "But everyone I meet is only interested in ruling the galaxy." Then her face soured. "That, and..."
It took a moment, but Ranma realized what "and" was probably eluding to. Lala was beautiful, after all, and he had a lot of experience himself when it came to the unwanted attentions of both men and women, so he couldn't help feeling sorry for her. Even if she wasn't the princess of a kingdom that ruled the entire galaxy, he could at least relate to having a father who put his own needs before that of his child. Especially one that tried to force them to marry someone that they didn't like.
That last line of thought made him uncomfortable, so he refocused his attention on Lala and gave her a wan smile. "Well, so long as you're here, you won't have to worry about that, right?"
Lala perked up at that. "You're right!" She gave him a radiant smile. "Thanks again, Ranma! I really appreciate what you're doing for me!"
Ranma scratched the side of his face and turned his eyes away. "Ah, it's no problem..."
When they finally made it back to the house, they entered the same way as they had left: through the guest room window. Between not wanting to worry his mother, and wanting to get some sleep before even contemplating telling her anything, Ranma had only planned to check up on her since the lights downstairs still seemed to be on.
However, when they ventured into the living room, they found her waiting for them with a tea set arranged on the low table. Upon seeing them, she got up and approached her son. The extremely happy look on her face made said son wary of whatever she was about to say; even more so when she laid her hands upon his shoulders.
"I'm so proud of you, Ranma," she said with a beaming smile. When her son had come downstairs all sweaty and with his person in disarray, while the girl wore a costume that could have only been meant for games in the bedroom, she knew that she had been right about what she had heard earlier. "Just be sure to be responsible for what you've done as a man."
"For what I've done as...?" Ranma asked, looking confused, and dreading whatever answer his mother would give him. "What are you talking about?"
While Ranma tried to clear up a very embarrassing misunderstanding...
The two men that had been tasked with collecting the princess, so that they could bring her back home, had just finished giving their report to their commander on the bridge of his spaceship, despite appearing as if they'd been caught up in an explosion... Which, of course, they had. His back was currently turned toward them, and — with his black cape obscuring everything below the neck — the only thing that they could see of him was the back of his white-haired head.
"...I see," their commander replied. "You couldn't take care of her by yourselves."
There was a pause before he spoke again. "Very well. I will go down to Earth and get her myself."
"Good grief," the commander thought to himself, as he glanced at the screen that displayed the underdeveloped planet in question. "What a troublesome princess..."
