Ukyo shuddered with embarrassment as she slipped through the window. She really wasn't this kind of girl, but sometimes you had to do the unexpected in battle. The battle for her Ranchan was the battle of her life, and given the stakes, Ukyo wouldn't hesitate to use the nuclear option.
She wasn't worried about being caught. Konatsu had taught her his 'see me not' technique to suppress her aura, but fortunately she hadn't needed to test it yet.
Listening carefully, she could hear Ranma getting ready for bed. He would be here soon. She fought down the overwhelming urge to slip away into the night. It was now or never, decision time. Whatever happened, Ranma would never again see her as anything but a sexy woman after tonight.
The sound of voices in the hall decided her. Slipping under the bed, she cloaked her aura to the point that she could no longer sense the outside world at all. It was a terrifying sensation, but she would endure it, secure in the knowledge that she was on her own for the last time. She would give Ranchan enough time to drift off and then surprise him.
Using an ancient technique of her school, Ukyo put herself into a deep trance. It would last exactly two hours but make it seem shorter.
-
Ranma lay in his bed, baffled. He couldn't sleep. Every time he drifted off something woke him up.
After a time, he got out of bed and padded to the window. Opening it, he listened. A dog barked once, about a mile away and the familiar subsonic rumble of a great city at night underpinned everything. Sniffing, he could detect nothing on the night breeze. So what was keeping him awake?
Concentrating, he scanned with his rudimentary ki senses. He was still developing the technique and it wasn't very directional, but he immediately got a strong return. It was a youma. Youma were fairly harmless and very interesting. Dressing quickly, he hopped out of the window. This was the perfect opportunity to experiment with Chi-magic.
Ranma moved like a breeze through Minato-Ku, following the faint scent of magic. He turned a corner, passed a closed arcade and fetched up by a set of vending machines.
Hopping to the top of the biggest machine, he donned his umisenken and looked around carefully. It took him a moment to notice, but it was fairly obvious when he did. Vending machines usually didn't have arms, or try to grab at a guy, even when he didn't pay.
"Vendor!" The Youma launched pocky in various directions, unable to locate the mortal that had assaulted its dignity by using its head as a springboard.
Ranma, moving with incredible speed, caught all of the pocky before it landed and carefully stuffed it all into his small ki warp. There was no reason to let it go to waste.
"Hey! That was all almond and chocolate! Got any strawberry?" Ranma dropped his umisenken. He was loving it. He had at least month's supply already.
"Fool! I will drain you!" Vendor pointed a small crystal at the annoying pest.
Ranma tensed, ready to run if his technique failed. He had hoped to test it by provoking Miss Hinako, but he wasn't really worried. It would take the thing a long time to drain him.
Ranma felt the ki conduit touch him. He channeled a trickle of very hot ki at it. The youma's conduit instantly collapsed.
Ranma gave the youma his best grin, a grin that he had spent years perfecting. His grin would and had driven well-respected, sober and kindly martial arts masters into a killing rage in under thirty seconds. It was really the only way to learn their best techniques.
"Heh-heh. What a lame youma. Maybe ya ought ta try shootin' some more pocky at me. Strawberry this time!"
The youma howled with rage and jabbed the crystal at the insolent mortal once again.
Ranma had already assumed the soul of ice. The conduit hit him, attached itself and then backflowed, just as he had thought it would. Fearing contamination he didn't let the thing's ki touch his, just flaring it all away at once in his outer aura. It felt artificial, the only emotion a mindless sort of greed.
The youma screamed in anguish and finally threw the crystal down. Lumbering toward Ranma, it raised its massive arms for a killing blow.
Ranma stood, yawning. He poked a fifty yen coin into Vendor's coin slot when it was close enough. "Hmm, let's see. Alright, you do have strawberry!"
The youma screamed, in rage this time, and brought its fists down with a mighty crash, breaking the pavement.
Negligently, Ranma sidestepped the blow by the merest millimeter. Looking half-asleep, he punched the button and then retrieved his pocky.
The youma went into a frenzy of enraged attempts to hit the horrible mortal, but it simply couldn't touch him.
Ranma casually sidestepped every blow, ruminatively eating his pocky. Finishing, he grinned at the youma. "Man, you are just totally lame. I ought to complain to the vending machine company about you being such a wimpy opponent. Good pocky though."
Vendor stopped its futile swiping, swaying on its legs. It had used up a lot of energy. "Complaints? Well then, mortal, HAVE YOUR MONEY BACK!" It spewed coins at Ranma, with the speed of a machinegun.
Ranma backflipped away and then proceeded to catch every single coin out of the air, using a modification of the amigurkin speed technique. "Wow! Thanks, man! I can really use this!"
"It's coming from down here!" The voice was female and approaching rapidly.
Ranma caught an echo of strange energy. He had felt it before. "Oh, hey, sorry to take the money and run, but I gotta go now. The Hentai Chicks are comin' and I don't want anymore fiancées."
Vendor felt like crying. "You'll fall, mortal. All of you will!"
Ranma shrugged. "Yeah, whatever. Thanks again for the money and the pocky. You ain't so bad, for a freak." He assumed his umisenken and stepped away from the depressed vending youma. Picking up the crystal, he stepped over to the alcove where the machine had originally stood. It would be interesting to watch the Hentai Chicks in action.
-
Shampoo didn't hear the door open, but her husband could be very stealthy when he wanted to be. She hadn't felt any aura in the room, so he was playing some sort of game with her, being absent while leaving the window open for her. He was absolutely silent crossing the room, so Shampoo went along with it, lying quietly.
She wondered how he had masked his aura so well. Ranma usually stood out to her senses. It wasn't really that big of a surprise though. One of the many reasons that she had been given such extraordinary latitude in her pursuit was that her Airen's family school had an invisibility technique that the elders badly wanted to add to Amazon wu-shu.
The bed creaked slightly as her beloved climbed in. Shampoo gave nothing but a small contented sigh as she automatically reached for him.
Ukyo swallowed with relief as Ranchan welcomed her with a quick hug. She was somewhat disappointed that Ranchan was in female form, but then as Cosmo had pointed out, a man had to be tamed in stages. She hadn't really expected any sex tonight anyway. Ranma was just making sure that things didn't get out of hand. Sighing, Ukyo settled into her fiancé's loving embrace. She would have to get used to it sooner or later and it was better sooner. After all, Ukyo intended to do everything with Ranma once they were married and that included the cursed form.
Shampoo was a little bit surprised at her Airen's use of his cursed form, but not at all disconcerted. If he thought that Shampoo would be put out by the fact that he was a woman, then he didn't know very much about the Amazon Way. Snuggling close to her love, Shampoo claimed her lips.
Ukyo gasped as Ranma kissed her with absolute thoroughness. It was somewhat upsetting that Ranchan was already such a wonderful kisser, but on the other hand… oh, my. Returning the kiss with interest, Ukyo let her hands explore, finding to her surprise that there was no sense of revulsion.
Interest growing, Shampoo let her tongue swirl inside her love's mouth, and then began to caress the athletic body. She was getting a very good feeling that tonight would be the night that made Ranma hers, and all it took was a little bit of boldness!
Ukyo moaned as Ranma's teasing hands began to invade places that no other hands had ever touched. She took a deep breath and trilled, "Oh, Ranchan!"
Shampoo froze, every bit of blood draining from her head. Disentangling herself, she reached over and snapped on the bedside lamp.
Horrified purple eyes met shocked blue. Both girls sprang away, landing on opposite sides of the bed.
Ukyo began spitting and hyperventilating, instantly un-aroused.
Shampoo wiped at her mouth and then paled in disgust as she remembered where her hand had just been. Clamping her mouth shut, she managed to avoid vomiting.
The girls locked eyes again and rage blossomed so thick that the air in between them almost caught on fire.
"This never happened." Ukyo grated out, retrieving her clothing. She quickly put it all on. "It never happened and we'll never speak of it again. But your ass is grass, China Girl. Not here and not now, but really soon."
Shampoo snorted contemptuously and rapidly donned her own clothing. Spatula Girl was tricky and very tough, but not quite tough enough. Shampoo had beaten Dowell twice after all, and the chef couldn't be anywhere close to that level.
"You ass mine." Shampoo hoped that she had loaded her voice with enough contempt. If she followed her natural impulse and attacked at once the Mother in Law would certainly find them and the consequences would be serious. She had a plan to deal with Ukyo decisively, but later. Not much later though.
-
Ranma unwrapped an almond pocky and shook his head sadly as another Jupiter Thunderbolt Crash hit the youma. Poor old Vendor was moving slow and looking kind of scorched. The Crescent Beam, Burning Mandala and Moon Spiral Heart Attack were all cool, if minor, attacks but none of them were all that functionally different from the magic attacks that he'd already seen out of Saffron. The attack that he really wanted to see again was the Shabon Spray, or Mercury Bubbles Blast, but the blue haired chick hadn't shot one off for a long time.
Vendor fell flat and Ranma raised the pocky in a solemn salute to the passing of a brave and generous monster. The battle was over. Eating, he slipped past the Hentai Chicks and headed home. He really needed to get some sleep.
-
Sailor Moon heaved a sigh of relief. The monster had been very tough. "Anything else out there tonight?"
"There's someone watching us. Over there." Ami pointed at a nearby roof.
Moon peered up at the rooftop. "Hello, are you alright? There's nothing to fear now."
"OHOHOHOHOHOHO! On the contrary." Kodachi jumped from the roof, caught an overhead trellis with her ribbon and touched down lightly in front of Moon. "I wish to have a word with you vile harlots. A word of warning."
All of the Senshi tensed. The girl felt evil. "Who are you?"
Kodachi's eyes flashed with utter contempt. "I am the Black Rose of St. Hebereke and you have assaulted my husband to be. I would hear your attempts at explanation for that foul act."
"Huh?" Minako wondered if the girl was all there. "We killed a possessed vending machine. You couldn't mean that, could you?"
"Fool! I speak of Ranma Saotome, the owner of my heart, the good and noble man whom you attempted to kill just yesterday!" She decided that the one with the scanner was the weak one.
"Wait… you mean the invisible guy?" Ami was excited. Ryoga Hibiki's enemy! The martial arts thug! It all fit.
"He would hardly allow profane eyes such as yours to defile his noble countenance. Know, harlots, that Ranma-samma is under my protection. Attack him again or pursue him at all and I will deal with you most harshly." Kodachi sniffed contemptuously. Properly approached they were nothing.
"Who attacks husband? Shampoo kill!" Thrilled to find a fight that would take her mind off of things, Shampoo stepped out of the ally to the left. She had been throwing up and trying to avoid bumping into Ukyo again.
"Anyone laying a finger on my Ran-chan is gonna to answer to me!" Ukyo stepped out of the ally to the right side of the street. Spoiling for a fight, she had been throwing up and avoiding Shampoo.
"Ranma Saotome is going to get it for what he did to me! And his little troll too!" Rei, hot headed to a fault, incautiously precipitated the worst all-girl brawl in Tokyo's long and silly history.
-
Ranma hopped through his window, stripped off and sat down on his bed. Frowning, he sniffed the air. What was that smell? It was oddly familiar, almost like Shampoo's cinnamon scent but with a hint of strawberry. It was hard to tell after eating the pocky. There was something else under it all, a tantalizing scent, something compelling but still vaguely familiar.
His bedsheets had been pulled neatly taut before he left. Now they were in disarray, tangled and wadded at the foot of the bed.
Ranma stood and put a hand on the mattress. He remembered the way that he had taken Vendor's fake ki into himself. It gave him an idea. Maybe he could take in the chi lingering on the sheets and feel exactly who had been there. He just hoped that his mom hadn't come in for some reason and caught Shampoo in his bed while he was gone.
Ranma concentrated on his soul of ice to no avail. Obviously there had to be a connection already established to make it work like that. Sighing with fatigue, he thought about Miss Hinako and tried forming a ki-void in his aura.
Touching the sheet, he gasped as the lingering chi was drawn in to his aura. It was Ucchan. Ucchan and Shampoo. Sexually aroused. Together? He broke into a sweat as the latent sexuality swamped him. They had been… aroused. In his bed. Together.
Swallowing, feeling absurdly energized, he sat down in his chair and stared slack-jawed at the bed. He did not blink for over ten minutes.