Another Rainy Day in Nerima Another Rainy Day in Nerima
Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any related characters in any way, shape or form.
Author's Notes: technically, the "Ranma kissed Nabiki" oneshot was the most voted for so far, but we wanted to make sure that we had our own, unique take on it before we wrote it up- hence why this oneshot was posted instead. However, now that we have a few other oneshots up, I feel we're ready to try that Ranma/Nabiki one, so that will be the next oneshot we post. Please tell us what oneshots you want to see however; your votes from this chapter will just help count towards the next one after the Ranma Kissed Nabiki one.
Okdro, I hate to tell you this, but one of the rules for this anthology is simple: no Ranma/Akane. I don't like Akane, I certainly don't like pairing her with Ranma, I couldn't write Ranma/Akane to save my life, and I personally feel there's too many Ranma/Akane's out there anyway. This is just my little way of giving the other girls some love, especially those who tend not to get too much (Shampoo & Kodachi).
LiYinBlake; now, would I be wrong, or are you saying you'd like to see a fully story based on the previous oneshot?
Chapter 3: A Different Type of Circumstance
Ranma looked up from the misty mirror as a crack of thunder suddenly rumbled, turning his gaze out the window and developing a piqued expression upon seeing that the weather had worsened. He sighed heavily, then resumed viewing his new possession- truth be told, this wasn't such a bad way to pass the time. But he was a little tired of seeing his own paths... what about that timestream where Mousse had somehow managed to defeat him in their first ever battle? The mists roiled and heaved and Ranma found his self pulled down...
"Alright! Mousse can't win without his glasses!" Akane Tendo cried happily. This fight had been leaning heavily in the Chinese boy's favor due to the reach advantage he had over Ranma's cursed form, something which neither she nor Ranma him/herself was happy about.
"We'll just see about that!" Mousse smirked, pulling out a magnifying glass and pressing it to his face in order to compensate for his terrible shortsightedness. Digging around in a ki warp, he simultaneously leapt into the air and flung a handful of pellets onto the arena. However, instead of bursting into flames, there was a series of intense flashes, prompting Mousse to drop his eye-glass and close his eyes in shock- he'd pulled out flash pellets by mistake! He'd meant to use fire pellets!
"My eyes! Can't see!" Came a distressed voice, female, but using distinctly male Japanese words. Mousse smirked as the realization sank in- this was better than he'd expected! While he was used to operating while blind, his opponent clearly wasn't, and he immediately seized advantage of that. Having pinpointed Ranma's location with his hearing, Mousse barreled over, driving his elbow into the gut of the boy-disguised-as-a-girl and following up with a spin-kick that crashed into Ranma's temple and flung him from the ring to land unconscious on the ground.
Akane gasped in shock and horror as Ranma sprawled lifelessly across the pavement. When she failed to move, Mousse hopped down and began approaching the boy-turned-girl. Akane's blood burned in her veins; stupid idiot that Ranma was, she couldn't let him/her get killed! She thrust herself to her feet, grabbed the shogi board from the idiotic fathers, and ran towards the Chinese boy...
"You leave him alone!"
Mousse's head whipped up at that unexpected voice, having been moving closer to make sure that Ranma really was unconscious, and promptly had a shogi board crash so hard into his face that it smashed into pieces. He remained standing for a few seconds, the endurance that came from over a decade of being beaten up fighting to keep him conscious, but then he gave up the fight and keeled over.
Back in the real world, Ranma raised an eyebrow at the turn of events, but as he continued watching, things only began to get stranger.
Mousse groaned as consciousness returned to him and with it, sensations and the remembrance of what had happened in the fight before he heard a rather unwelcome voice.
"Well now, isn't this an interesting development." Mousse turned his head and with a few gropes, found a set of replacement glasses so he could regarded Cologne more fully as the Matriarch continued, "You lost Mu Tzu, both by your own stakes in the match and by Amazon Law. I suppose congratulations are in order for you and your new wife, may the two of you live a long and happy life."
Mousse could only groan as he decided that arguing the point wasn't going to solve everything, and he had lost after all. Might as well live with it and besides, it couldn't be that bad right? The sight that greeted him upon making his way out of the room in the Cat Cafe; two men sitting next to a relatively confused girl on one side and that red-haired girl Ranma on the other, made the young man wonder what that sinking feeling in his gut was…
Cologne hopped to the forefront as Mousse found a seat at the table while the old woman spoke up, "As I'm certain that certain members of this little party know all too well." She shot a glance at Ranma and Genma, the girl grimacing while the man started sweating as she continued, "Our laws are quite clear cut, so I suppose beating around the bush won't be needed here." The old woman regarded Akane with a kind smile, "Congratulations young lady, you just earned yourself a husband." Cologne nudged Mousse to point him out, "Namely this young man right here."
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" This was the shout from one Soun Tendo, who had gone from tears to what could be called righteous fury, "Akane is supposed to marry Ranma here, not some interloper! How could she be married to this person!"
Cologne smiled placidly as Shampoo bounded in at that point, saw the building argument and decided to watch the proceedings while sitting uncomfortably close to Ranma, who was trying to pretend she couldn't see the evil eye she was receiving from Akane.
"In case you have forgotten, Ranma himself has already renounced his claim to miss Akane Tendo's hand." Cologne replied levelly, her expression one of complete calmness.
Soun shook his head, "He obviously didn't mean to say such a thing. Ranma, you obviously weren't serious about renouncing the marriage agreement right?"
Genma nodded furiously, "Yes son, tell her you didn't mean that crack about renouncing the marriage agreement. You were just saying that as part of the challenge weren't you? After all, you never actually agreed on it so it obviously doesn't count."
"I hate to burst your bubbles, but Ranma agreed, in front of witnesses, that if he lost his duel with Mousse, he would, and I quote, 'Give his woman -that is, Akane- to him'. You two have no defense here." Cologne said solemnly. Shampoo's expression turned into a beaming smile near-wide enough to split her face, while Akane began to smolder, something which Ranma had become all too familiar with recently, if the way the red-haired girl fearfully backed away from the navy-haired tomboy was any indicator.
Genma tried to play one last gambit as Soun sputtered, "Even if that is true, how can we be sure that this 'Mousse' is actually a member of your village? He could just be someone you've hired simply to further your own agenda!" Soun perked up at that statement.
"Yes, that's right! What proof do you have that this young man is a member of your village and not someone you've simply paid money to fight Ranma?"
Ranma rolled her/his eyes at this; the two idiots couldn't even accept that they never had a chance.
Cologne rolled her eyes, while Shampoo looked torn between laughing and being insulted. "Don't insult my intelligence, please. Why would I waste money hiring someone, when I need only be patient and Ranma will come to us willingly? After all, he will never again resume his true birth gender unless he agrees to marry my Shampoo- which means that there was no point to cut his ties to your daughter, as he is unable to marry her whilst a woman."
Unthinkingly, Soun stepped in front of Akane as if to ward her from Cologne's eyes. He raised a hand and opened his mouth, as if about to make a point, when Akane suddenly pushed past him and slammed her palms onto the table.
"Oh, so now I'm so bad, I need a guy to take a fall for me to win, is that what you're saying? I'm a martial artist too, dad! I beat him fair and square!"
"Have you hit yourself on the head recently?" Ranma unthinkingly asked in response to that. Akane whirled on her in a fury.
"You stay out of this, you no-good lecher! Just because I managed to beat the guy who beat you, you don't have to badmouth me! Why, I beat you're just jealous that I was able to win for once!"
Soun interjected before Ranma was able to retort, "And we are very proud for your win Akane. Its just that...well...you do have an obligation to marry Ranma and unite the Schools." Genma nodded, but stayed silent as Akane turned her glare in the direction of her father.
Ranma was about to get a comment in when Akane threw up her hands and stood up, "Forget this! Who cares if I'm stuck with another pervert, I won and that's final!"
Mousse flinched as Akane's eyes trained themselves on him and she pointed at the Chinese boy with narrowed eyes, "Come on! Since I'm stuck with you I might as well show you where you're staying. And any funny tricks from you and POW!" Akane emphasized her statement with a fist meeting a palm; "I'm going to make you the first pervert to land on the moon without a rocket!"
Mousse simply nodded and stood up, the others immediately following suit and so it was that a pair of stunned fathers, and a pair of silent martial artists followed a fuming teenage girl left the Nekohanten.
It was a quiet, almost sullen quintet that finally tromped in through the doors of the Tendo Dojo, where Kasumi was already waiting with a smile on her face and a steaming cup of tea on the table, while Nabiki sat idly in front of the TV munching on the contents of a bag of chips. She looked up out of idle curiosity as the five unhappy folks came in.
"What's he doing here?" Nabiki asked in a muffled voice. Akane's snarl of an expression made her raise an eyebrow in question, but probably would have prompted her to drop the subject had not Soun suddenly spoke up.
"Apparently, those ridiculous laws, coupled with Ranma's foolish promise, means that not only is Ranma no longer allowed to marry Akane by his honor, but Mousse here is now Akane's fiancé instead."
"Wow. You really do have a way with boys, Akane." Nabiki joked dryly.
"Dry up Nabiki." Akane muttered.
"Ah well, I guess it really isn't so bad..." Soun commented idly.
"Excuse me!?" Erupted Akane, Mousse, and both Saotomes.
Soun beamed happily as he explained his comment. "Now I have two strong son-in-laws to take over my dojo! Mousse will wed Akane, and Ranma will wed Nabiki!"
"Oh no you don't, daddy! I am not going to marry another girl!" Nabiki snapped angrily, her usual disinterest flaring away in response to this heinous attempt to impose responsibility on her.
"I am a man!" Ranma screamed in fury. She, Nabiki, and the two fathers promptly beginning to 'discuss' this matter amongst themselves. By which I mean they began screaming at each other and paying no attention to what any of the others were saying, though Genma didn't take long before he decided to agree with Soun on general principle. Mousse watched the verbal fray from the sidelines, a small drop of sweat trickling down the back of his head in disbelief at their antics. Akane scowled at them, then turned to Mousse.
"Come on. I may as well show you where you'll be sleeping- but I'm warning you. Try any funny stuff, and you're out of here!"
Mousse repressed the urge to snort disdainfully and make a snapback along the lines of "Don't flatter yourself", but reasoned that he was in enough trouble already, instead simply following her upstairs and along some halls into a sparse, but neat, extra room.
"Here you are... oh. We... don't have any spare futons or clothing." Akane said, sounding embarrassed about that fact, something that couldn't help but make a small, tired smile form on Mousse's face; he couldn't remember the last time that someone had been apologetic for his sake.
"It's alright. I have my own." He answered calmly, reaching into one of his spacious sleeves, feeling around inside of it, then holding it at a steep angle to the floor, allowing a mass of cloth to fall from it and into a sizeable mound on the floor. He dug around in the collection to sort out bedding from spare clothes, put the bedding aside, then stuffed the clothing back into storage. Akane watched him, feeling a little like she was a little kid watching a conjurer's act.
"How do you fit that much stuff up your sleeves anyway?"
"I've always had a knack for Hidden Weapons style... do you want me to teach you?" Mousse asked. He didn't believe for a second that she would accept, but he thought it was the polite thing to do.
"Sure!" Mousse blinked at the excited look on Akane's face before he recovered enough to try and remember the basics.
"Okay then, here's how the basics go..."
In the real world, Ranma watched with interest as Mousse proved himself to be somewhat of a capable teacher to Akane, though that could also be chalked up to being able to spot the signs when a girl who had no problems using violence against you was frustrated enough to be unable to learn properly, and that was fairly common. After watching a few lessons, Ranma decided to see what the next major point in this tale was. At his thought, the mirror fast-forwarded to a point three days later...
It started like a normal day, except that Mousse was helping Kasumi cook and Ranma was still female since nothing the boy turned girl had tried was able to get him to change back, even lukewarm water was enough to dissuade her from trying it again. But that wasn't the full extent of the tension, for the last week or so Soun and Genma had been pushing Ranma to marry Kasumi, since Nabiki had all but promised some sort of horrible financial ruin and brutal public character assassination if they tried it with her, and Ranma was certain that even the normally placid Kasumi was beginning to get sick and tired of the constant harping of the two fathers. It didn't help matters that Ranma's efforts to avoid aggravating her too much were being seen as a sign of true love at work by the two idiots.
Now, Ranma was quite firmly but kindly told not to help her unless she specifically asked for the help, and since any interaction was going to be perceived as romance that meant that Ranma pretty much had been told to sit around and do nothing while Mousse received the work instead, since his status as Akane's fiancé meant that there was no way in Soun and Genma's minds that he would do anything untoward to Kasumi. Mousse frankly didn't really feel like experiencing Akane's wrath, plus he had tribal laws to uphold after all.
Though Mousse appeared almost as serene as the eldest Tendo daughter as he helped her prepare breakfast, internally, he was troubled. And this was a problem that had been nagging at him for a while. His "bride" Akane had revealed that she owned a pet miniature pig, which had the very un-pig-like habit of appearing and disappearing at random intervals. Beyond this strangeness was its behavior; Mousse would swear that not only did it have the habit of wearing the porcine equivalent of a perverted smirk when Akane cuddled it to her chest (and Ranma's apparent jealousy/disdain for her doing this was another odd factor), it also had the tendency to give both Ranma and Mousse himself an evil eye. More Mousse, these days. Several days after he had first moved here, Ranma had been attacked by a strange boy with a tiger-stripe patterned bandanna.
Now, Mousse's eyesight wasn't too hot, he had to admit it, but the pattern of the bandanna that the stranger had worn had looked almost identical to the one worn by P-chan. The strange boy, Ryoga he remembered Ranma calling him, had vanished during the fight- Ranma had said something about losing Ryoga, claiming that Ryoga's most defining feature was his utter lack of any sense of direction. When questioned privately as to why he had attacked Ranma, Ranma had begrudgingly told Mousse that Ryoga had a crush on Akane, warning him that it was likely Ryoga would attack him if he got the opportunity.
This all added up to a very strange set of circumstances, especially seeing as how he had learned the true nature of Jusenkyo from Ranma and her/his father during his stay. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more positive he was that P-chan and Ryoga were truly one and the same. If that was the case, he had to expose Ryoga's deception, for Akane's sake. While his love would always be for Shampoo, what kind of person could he call himself to be if he just sat back and allowed a pervert like Ryoga to take advantage of Akane's naivety? He nodded to himself: he would do it, as soon as was possible.
Breakfast was served and everyone began to eat in silence, both human and the little piglet being fed by Akane while it shot smug looks at Ranma, and glares at Mousse as though daring him to say something to give it justification to attack. Mousse however, did something completely different as he picked up a cup of steaming hot tea and then politely asked, "Can I hold your pet piglet? I'm curious about what sort of breed it is."
Akane blinked, then figured that since Mousse asked politely unlike one sex-changing jerk, he could hold P-chan. The piglet glanced at Mousse suspiciously while he blandly sipped at the tea, suspicion that was matched by Nabiki who wondered what their new boarder had in mind.
Piglet securely in his free hand, Mousse simply began prodding and poking gently as though he was genuinely studying the piglet, who by now was simply content squirm when fingers got too close to certain areas, which was amusing Ranma greatly, to the point that the red-head finally gave up trying to be quiet and sarcastically commented, "What's the matter porky? His hands too cold for you?"
That did it, but as the piglet managed to loosen Mousse's grip enough to leap, it bumped the Chinese teen's hand and the tea fell out and splashed onto the piglet, who only had time to let loose an oink of shock before with a flash of movement, Mousse was now restraining a very surprised Ryoga Hibiki as Mousse simply stated calmly, "Jusenkyo."
Akane could only goggle in shock before looking around for P-chan, "Where did P-chan go?" Mousse's face remained impassive.
"He never left, in fact he's still here. Ryoga Hibiki is P-chan, or rather is cursed to transform into P-chan." Akane's face scrunched up her mind tried to register the words and while in any other case and in any other universe it would have failed spectacularly, this time long disused logic circuits kicked into the overdrive as a particular train of thought made itself known.
P-chan is Ryoga, Mousse says that Ryoga is cursed to turn into P-chan, Curse plus Jusenkyo means that he went to Jusenkyo and got a curse just like Ranma who...knew all along! In an instant, Akane went from confused to mad as hell.
In the Prime universe, Ranma-Prime had an all-too-clear vision of what was going to happen...
"RANMA! RYOGA!"
One powerful uppercut, and Ryoga had left the building, leaving in his wake nothing but a floating bandanna and a huge hole in the roof. Mousse lay sprawled on the floor, having barely avoided being sent for a ride with Ryoga, and Akane, her aura burning in the air around her, turned to Ranma with an expression of fury so intense, words could not describe it. Having learned all too well precisely how Akane's mind tended to work, the pigtailed girl tried to back away from her, waving her hands frantically.
"No, wait, Akane! It's not what you think!"
"You bastard! You lying, miserable...!" Words failed her and she charged Ranma with a scream splitting the air, plowing into the doomed redhead and literally thrashing her across the yard. When she finally allowed the bruised and unconscious girl to collapse at her feet, Akane turned wrathfully towards her father.
"Get them out of here!"
"What?! But, Akane...!" Soun spluttered.
"These bastards allowed their sick friend to take advantage of me! They laughed while that pervert was cuddling with me, sleeping with me! I want them out of here! NOW!"
Now, to give Soun Tendo some credit, he did try and talk some sense into Akane... but, Soun being Soun, and Akane being Akane, things went the way she wanted and within the next 15 minutes the gates to the Tendo property had slammed shut on a pole-axed Genma and a Ranma that had just regained consciousness enough that her last sight of the Tendo Dojo was Akane's dark expression. Dusting her hands with dark triumph, Akane strode back inside, passing by a silent, expressionless Mousse. She paused and sent him a brief, sad smile.
"Thank you. If it weren't for you, those perverts..." She cut herself off, and went inside, while Mousse simply looked back at the gate.
While it definitely felt good to get revenge on the man-turned-girl who had stolen his beloved Shampoo's heart away from him, there was something about this that felt a little... 'off'. Maybe he had gone overboard? ...Nah.
It would be hard to describe the emotions currently conflicting with Ranma-Prime's psyche at this moment, but a definite fact was that he was resisting the urge to snarl. The fact he could very well see Akane pulling something like this -after all, he had been kicked out of the Tendo Dojo more than once in the past- was definitely not helping matters. He decided to refocus the eye on his counterpart in this timestream, to see what would happen when they woke up...
Ranma groaned softly as she finally regained her senses- and promptly wished she hadn't as the myriad pain signals that had been queued up and waiting for her to do so promptly stormed into her brain. Damn moronic tomboy bitch... couldn't she ever hear him/her out? She blinked her eyes to make her vision less blurry, than focused on Genma, who was standing nearby.
"Where... where are we? What happened?"
Genma laughed weakly, "Akane lost her temper and seemed to think that we were responsible for Ryoga's actions." He then looked away, obviously not wanting to meet Ranma's eyes, "I tried to explain the situation but she was inconsolable and eventually Soun and I decided that it might be best to spend some time away from the Dojo while Akane cools down enough for us to explain the truth."
Translation: We just got tossed out on the streets, but give me a few days and I'll come up with a plan to get us back in the dojo and return everything to normal.
Ranma stared at him in silence for a minute, prompting a bead of nervous sweat to trickle down Genma's face as her gimlet-like eyes bored into him. Finally, she spoke, her voice icy cold and barely above a whisper. "...And why do we want to go back, old man? Tell me."
Genma looked confused, "Why, so we can fulfill the Tendo-Saotome agreement! We'll find a cure eventually and then Soun and I will be able to happily watch you be married!"
At this last statement, Genma nodded authoritatively, "Now then, all we have to do is calm Akane down and then explain this whole mess to her. After all, its a matter of honor."
"Honor. Honor? Honor..." Ranma repeated the word to herself several times, seeming to roll it around on her tongue as though trying to taste it. "What do you mean by 'honor'? What 'honor' do we have that could possibly warrant me putting up with that... bitch!- As a sister-in-law? Or worse, as my wife! Hell, you damn well sold me for a fish and two pickles! Doesn't that pretty much invalidate your damned 'honor'?" Ranma snarled, infusing the word "honor" with as much venom, vitriol and sarcasm as she could muster.
Genma frowned, "All right then boy, if you have a better idea then lets hear it!"
After a few minutes silence, Genma stepped closer to his son turned daughter, "Well? Come on boy, if you have an idea that is better than mine and you seem to think you do, let me have it!"
Ranma hissed between her teeth. "Well, since little miss princess has made it quite clear that we're no longer welcome, I guess I will go to the Nekohanten." The sour look on her face intensified at having to swallow her pride in such a manner, but if she was no longer bound by her stupid old man's agreement to have anything to do with the Tendos, then she'd be damned if she was going to spend the rest of her life as a girl! She was a guy!
Genma sputtered, "What!? No, I absolutely forbid such action boy!" He crossed his arms over his chest, "You're going to help me get back into the Dojo, because the only way you're going to be able to go to the Nekohanten is through me!"
"Careful old man, or I just might take you up on that!" Ranma snarled, her eyes narrowing into slits. "The way I see it, this is all your damn fault in the first place! You got me cursed, you took me to Shampoo's damn village, you started eating her damn prize, you're the cause of all this! And why should I go back to that run-down dojo with no students, a pathetic crybaby for a master, and a violent bullheaded idiot of a tomboy with all the charm of a warthog! I tried to warn her about Ryoga being P-chan! But she wouldn't listen! And now that her stupidity is finally being rubbed in her face, I'm the one at fault! Fuck that! The Amazons might be manipulative bitches, but they haven't beaten the tar out of me for their own damn mistakes!" She was shouting by this point, having unconsciously gone against her usual nature and stoked the flames of her fury to even greater heights.
Genma's eyes narrowed, "Fine then boy, lets settle this here and now." With that he dropped his pack and got into a stance, "One hit boy, just land one hit and I'll let you go."
Genma had barely finished saying that when Ranma's rage-driven fist landed squarely between his eyes. As the elder Saotome toppled backwards into the street, Ranma glared at him, panting heavily in fury. Finally, she tucked her limbs in, swung her pack onto her back, and headed in the direction of the Nekohanten, not even sparing a glance for her old man.
Ranma-Prime watched as his counterpart stalked off, and debated following her for a moment. He decided against it; he could always return and watch this timeline from her perspective another time. That decided, he refocused the Eye back on Akane and Mousse. Ranma-Prime didn't particularly want to watch Mousse and Akane's day-to-day life, he had other timestreams to view after all, so he instead sent the Eye skipping ahead in time to the day when their romantic feelings for each other could be said to have first begun to bloom. The Eye stopped on a point three weeks after Akane had banished the Saotomes from the Tendo House, and Ranma-Prime couldn't help but wonder for a second just when he'd gotten so good at telling how much time had been passed.
It was a Sunday, and so Akane was devoting her spare time to a sparring session with Mousse. Her lessons in Hidden Weapons style had progressed fairly well, and now she had the basics of concealment, Mousse was educating her in the second part of the style- actually using the concealed weapons.
"And then you throw your arms forwards like this." With a simply throwing motion, a number of rubber knives flew from Mousse's sleeve to strike a target dummy perfectly. Mousse then flicked his arm back and the weapons were returned to his sleeve before turning to Akane, "Okay, just like that. Don't worry about retrieving them like I did, focus on getting them out first."
Akane nodded before with a look of concentration, she threw her arm out like her arm had been electrocuted. Nothing happened and Akane was about to get frustrated at her lack of success when suddenly a stream of rubber knives flew from the sleeve and flew about the room, impacting against everything but the target. Mousse shook his head slightly, "Not quite, but you got them out. Next time, try to do it a little more smoothly."
Akane nodded and practice resumed once more for several more hours before it was called off for lunch. That was when Akane surprised Mousse by saying, "Lets go to the Nekohanten."
The Chinese boy stopped cold. "Wha?"
Akane pouted at the shocked expression on Mousse's face. "I said, lets go to the Nekohanten. I know you've been moping about after Shampoo so I figure since we're friends I could try and talk them into letting you go back there." Mousse didn't say a word, he was just too shocked at Akane's kind idea and that she might have noticed his pining for his beloved Shampoo. So he agreed to go to the Nekohanten with Akane to see if Cologne could be convinced into taking him back.
As the two walked, Mousse's mind was still reeling slightly and he glanced at Akane walking beside him. The two had become quite good friends since his 'defence' of her, and it seemed that the usually violent temper Akane displayed had been toned down a little.
The only thing that bothered Mousse was this: what had happened to Saotome after all this time? It was like the boy slash girl had simply vanished off the face of the earth. Putting that aside for now, Mousse saw the Nekohanten coming up and took a deep breath to steel his nerves for the meeting to come.
Akane pushed open the doors and immediately was greeted by a cheerful "Nihao! Welcome to Cat Cafe!" Then Shampoo blinked when she saw Mousse and frowned slightly, "What you doing here Mousse?"
Mousse was about to ask to see Cologne so that he could plead his case when his eyes fell on the lone male waiter expertly serving dishes to the starry-eyed female customers, drawing Shampoo's attention as well and eliciting a smile, "Oh! You came to meet Shampoo's husband!"
That hit like a sledgehammer to Mousse's gut ,and it only got worse as Akane evidently recognized the male as...
"Ranma?"
The waiter stopped and glanced over at hearing his name being called, blinked at recognizing the pair and simply waved back, and that was when Mousse saw the wedding ring. A glance at Shampoo's hand showed an identical ring, and for Mousse that was when everything fell apart. The last thing he remembered doing was flicking out some long knives...
A man walking towards the Nekohanten paused at hearing what sounded like a fight before the doors flew open and with a cry of "And stay out!" a body was thrown into the streets to land in a heap on the pavement, a teenage girl running out what now turned out to be a teenage boy as another pair of teenagers simply dusted their hands off and walked back inside, closing the doors of the restaurant after them.
Mousse groaned as he sat up, before he suddenly started retching. All this time, and she had married another man, with a ring and everything and worse still, it was the person he had defeated all those weeks before!
Mousses vision was blurry, both from the loss of his glasses and the tears he felt on his face, as he simply let out an inarticulate roar and pounded the ground in anguish.
Akane watched as Mousse made his anguish all too apparent, breaking down and crying right there in the street. A terrible sense of guilt overwhelmed her, even drowning out her own feelings of rage towards Ranma's treachery. She walked up to Mousse and knelt beside him before embracing him gently, not saying anything, simply allowing him to weep for his broken heart, his shattered dreams. When the torrent of tears finally stopped, she began to gently stroke his back.
"Mousse... she never deserved someone as nice, as sweet, as gentle and caring as you. Come on, let's go home- let her have that asshole. You're a wonderful person, and you will find someone who can treat you right."
Still teary-eyed, Mousse looked up blurrily into Akane's face, whereupon she favored him with a soft, gentle smile before helping him to his feet and leading him back towards the Tendo Dojo. Mousse was in no position to notice she was doing so, but nor was he in any particular mood to point out that she didn't need to hold his hand in order to guide him.
Ranma-Prime drew back from the Eye at that point, unable to stand the inexplicable feelings writhing within his heart. He began to skim further ahead, but the emotional turmoil grew only worse as he watched, admittedly from a "distance", a romance that unfolded like a blooming flower, until Ranma-Prime could no longer stand it and wrenched away from the timeline violently. He didn't know just what he was feeling, or why he was feeling this way, but he knew that he didn't like it.
Breathing heavily to himself for a few minutes as he wrestled himself back under control, he finally let out a long breath and resumed gazing into the mirror, switching to a different timeline as he did.
For those of you who came in late, if you'd like to see a particular oneshot expanded into a full story, then please leave a review or send me a PM along those lines. If I feel that folks would be interested, when this anthology reaches it's final chapter, I'll put up a poll for people to vote on what oneshot they'd like expanded into a full story. Technically, From the Icy Jaws of Defeat has an expansion planned, but that's really more of a sequel… anyway, please read and review to help us choose what to make into chapter 5 (by the numbers) of this anthology!
For those of you who don't remember what the choices are, I've relisted them here:
-Ranma told Shampoo he loved her during the Reversal Jewel
- Ukyo managed to actually get her "talk" with Ranma during the Great Girly-Girl Gambit episode
- Shampoo thought to get Ranma to sign her marriage license in secret during the Red Thread of Fate affair, so they were still legally married after Akane cut the thread at the last second
-Akane's hose pushed Ranma out of the ring in his battle with Kodachi
-Shampoo resisted the urge to go back and fight with Ukyo during the hotsprings race, so she and Ranma won the trip to Jusenkyo
-Ranma thought to ask Shampoo to have their date after he beat the Dojo Destroyer
-Shampoo figured out Ranma was lying about really being a girl instead of going back to China
-Ranma blurted out to Akane that when he said "I love you", he thought she was Nabiki
-When Ranma ate Akane's love-predicting sakura-mochi, an X appeared on his face
-During the Ten-Year Sauce mess, Ukyo actually threw away the sauce like she said she was going to do
-Ranma and Shampoo failed to kiss before Maomolin rang the bell for the 108th time.
-Ranma finds out how much Ukyo is hurt after "Swimming with Psychos".
-Nabiki never found out about Ranma's revenge plan and went on the date he asked her on instead of sending Akane.
-When Shampoo & Ukyo are fighting over the enchanted Ranma during the Love Bandage fiasco ("Ranma the Lady-Killer"), Ranma tries to stop things by signing both of their marriage licenses while they're distracted.
-Soun never interrupted Ranma while he was wooing Kasumi while wearing the Love Bandage.
And as a final memo, I've been considering doing a 'true sequel' to this story; a short story set after the storm abates and Ranma-Prime heads home to the Tendo Dojo, where the things he's seen and learned from the mirror prompt him to start making some changes to the status quo of Nerima. If anyone thinks that this would be a good story idea and wants to see it, leave reviews or send me PMs telling me so. If I get enough by the time this story hits its final chapter, I'll get to work on making a sequel- as well as leaving a new vote to help orientate matters in it.