Remember:

Mandarin

(Thoughts)


Chapter 7 Ranma meet Cologne Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku

When Ranma got back to the dojo he quickly ate dinner then feeling the fatigue from the previous morning catching up to him, he went to sleep. Had he known what was staring into his room he might have slept elsewhere that night and hide rather than sleeping put in the open.

Kodachi Kuno watched from a nearby perch as Ranma walked in and fell asleep on his pad. She waited a few more minutes to be sure he was asleep before sneaking up to the window and crawling into the room. She pulled out her special paralysis powder and sprinkled it over the poor guy to ensure he couldn't escape.

"Now Ranma darling accept fate and make me yours" cried Kodachi.

Of all the things to wake up to that was certainly one of the worst. Ranma woke up in a state of pure panic recognizing the voice instantly and dreading what she wanted. He would have started yelling at the top of his lungs and trying to run as far away as possible except the powder kept him from being able to move or even speak. As he was forced to watch the nightmarish scene unfold before his eyes he then had a stroke of luck in the form of a purple-haired rescuer that had snuck up behind Kodachi and surprised her.

"Nihao" said Shampoo with a threatening tone causing the gymnast to jump in surprise and alarm.

Shampoo capitalized on her surprise and blasted Kodachi through the roof, clear across town and when she landed it was hard enough to break a few ribs.

"Ranma get too too good sleep now okay" cheerfully called Shampoo as she left an extremely grateful Ranma behind trying to finally sleep.

The next morning the dojo was back to its normal routine. The Saotomes were sparing in cursed forms thanks to Genma waking up Ranma by throwing him into the koi pond and Ranma returning the favor. The resulting match ended with the panda lying in a crumbled heap, twisted like a pretzel and Ranma just walking off satisfied with his work. In his opinion the panda had gotten exactly what it deserved.

Breakfast was much less tense than the previous morning without the presence of Shampoo. The fact that Ranma and Shampoo already had a good friendship building, and that Ranma had yet to get along with Akane was reason for concern for the fathers. They worried that their dream retirement was in serious jeopardy. However neither would discuss it aloud for fear of ruining whatever relationship Ranma and Akane had managed to form. Not that the two teens need help coming up with reasons to be mad at each other. This morning it was an argument about Ranma waking into the bathroom to wash up after his sparing match not realizing that Akane was already in there taking hers.

"Geez Akane I already told ya I didn't know you were in there." Ranma yelled.

"You just wanted to see me in the nude you pervert."

"Why would I want to look at a flat chested Tomboy? I've already told ya if I ever want to look at a girl's body I just have to look in a mirror" retorted Ranma bitterly.

"You're such a pervert! You enjoy being like that don't you? Well you know what take this" Akane screamed before she smacked Ranma with the mallet. As Ranma was flying away, Akane muttered under her breath "jerk".

Ranma was sent flying straight towards the vacant lot that Shampoo had decided to set up camp. The loud thud he made when he hit the ground was enough to wake Shampoo from her slumber. Shampoo had been up late the previous night ensuring that Ranma would not have any more surprise visitors. The tiredness immediately vanished at the sight of Ranma to start her morning.

"Nihao Ranma. What bring you to Shampoo so early?" Shampoo asked cheerfully.

"Oh Akane and I had another argument and she sent me flying" replied Ranma casually.

""Why Ranma like arguing so much with stubborn violent girl like Akane?" questioned Shampoo.

"Hey I never said I like it" said Ranma slightly offended at the idea.

"Shampoo just teasing silly Ranma." said Shampoo as she burst into laughter at the sight of Ranma's face.

"Sorry Shampoo I'm just a little bit on edge right now because of what happened last night, by the way thanks for that. I'd be a goner if you hadn't intervened." Ranma said.

"Shampoo too too happy to rid Ranma of crazy girl" Shampoo said beaming.

"Well I got to go Shampoo, see ya around" called Ranma as he left to go walk around town.

Shampoo contemplated going after her airen to ask if he wanted another sparing match when she froze in place hearing a familiar voice behind her. "I see son-in-law must be really special to you Shampoo."

"Great-grandmother when you get here?" exclaimed Shampoo in shock.

"Long enough to see what you think of him my child" Cologne responded in her usual cryptic manner. "Before you say anything, I have a plan to make him open his eyes and see that you love him. Trust me"

(Every time she says that phrase she expects me realize what I should be doing on my own. What could she possibly be planning, cause if it backfires then this will not end well) thought Shampoo slipping back into mandarin. Eventually she responded to try and get more clarification on what the Amazon elder had said "Shampoo no understand why need help getting Ranma to notice."

"Just trust me child you'll thank me later because after I'm done the future son-in-law won't be able to stop thinking about you" Cologne stated before she hopped off on her walking stick.

Shampoo just stood there still trying to figure out what the matriarch was going to try and do, but her mind wandered to other thoughts. (How did it come to this? I had originally started this to get Mousse to leave me alone, but the more time I've spent with Ranma the more I want to be with him. He is the greatest sparring partner I've had, our skills complement each other well and there are many things we can teach each other to get better at our martial arts skills. Plus I always seem to feel more alive whenever you're around, oh Ranma why can't I just tell you how I feel?)

Ranma meanwhile was casually walking around the park enjoying the nice weather. Whistling to himself he thought about his most recent meeting with Shampoo (when did it suddenly get so hard to talk to Shampoo? First we're friends and then it suddenly feels different. I'll never understand what's going on 'cause pops is an idiot and I don't know anybody that could actually explain the situation to me…)

These thoughts were interrupted by his danger sense activating and causing him to jump to his right and away from the lake. When he finished his dive he rolled onto his feet and positioned himself ready for a fight.

"Well now Sonny boy you really are as good as Shampoo seems to think you are" said Cologne calmly.

"Do I know you old-ghoul?" asked Ranma earning a smack to the head with the walking stick for his troubles. "Hey what was that for?"

"You should show respect to your elders' young man" responded the matriarch.

"Yeah whatever, just who are you anyway?" asked Ranma.

"I am Cologne matriarch of the Joketsuzoku and Shampoo's Great-grandmother." stated the elder simply.

"What do you want old ghoul?" Ranma asked annoyed before he was bonked on the head for his rudeness.

"I'm here to test your skills as a warrior so that I know what areas you are lacking in before you can join us." Cologne replied calmly.

"What the heck are you talking about old ghoul?" Asked Ranma confused.

Exasperated Cologne just ignored Ranma's rudeness and answered "You'll understand soon enough, but for now all you have to know is we're going to have little match to test your martial arts skill."

"Alright you're on" replied Ranma eagerly.

Without any further discussion, Cologne began the challenge. She decided to simply toy with the boy and show her superior skill to make him eager to learn new techniques from her later. Every one of Ranma's kicks would miss because the elder was just too fast for him to hit. After a while, the Amazon matriarch decided that she had finished toying with Ranma and went on the offensive. Within the span of a minute Ranma found himself laying on the ground with numerous bruises but still trying to get up and fight the unscathed elder's staff blows.

Cologne felt sorry for the boy because he was up against an opponent that far out-classed hi at his current skill level. She did take pride in the huge amount of potential Ranma possessed however. Cologne could have easily finished him off by knocking him unconscious a long time ago, but she felt it was unnecessary and opted for a pressure point to immobilize him to get her point across.

"Son-in-law you are a hundred years too young to face me. Remember that and know that in the future we will be working together to improve your skills tremendously." Cologne stated as she took her staff and poked a few pressure points undoing the paralysis. "So long son-in-law we will meet again" She finished as she turned to leave before Ranma had a chance to react.

(Alright what the heck just happened? I couldn't even touch her) thought Ranma bitterly, losing never sat well with him. He planned to undertake more vigorous training when he suddenly remembered what Cologne had said '… we will be working together to improve your skill…'. (That means she plans on training me and was just seeing what I still needed to learn. If that's the case then I could handle that, still it showed me that I still have a long way to go before I can truly be the best ever.)

Ranma continued walking home and felt his stomach begin to growl. "Oh man I forgot to grab lunch. Better hurry back to the dojo before pops eats my share."

But before Ranma had even taken another step the weather underwent a drastic change and opened the flood gates drenching the now red-head girl standing there.

"Aw come on! I hate this stupid curse" fumed Ranma.

Meanwhile back at Shampoo's camp where it was still sunny, Shampoo had just finished packing up her gear after discovering that her Great-grandmother was in town. Shampoo figured that her presence in Japan meant that she had taken a particular interest in what was happening to her. Figuring it was best to get some answers from the matriarch herself rather than contemplate her motives Shampoo headed to the place her Great-grandmother had set as the meeting place.

When she found the Cat-café she walked in and found her elder sitting on a stool smoking a pipe lazily.

"Did Great-grandmother meet Ranma?" Shampoo asked hopeful.

"Yes, we had a nice chat and should have another one very soon I recon." Cologne returned simply.

"Shampoo hope you no is too too rough with Ranma" Shampoo said knowing full well what a 'chat' with Cologne usually entailed.

"He'll be fine child, his pride might have been bruised but it'll heal quickly enough. And it's about time we worked on that language barrier of yours because any student of mine should learn to speak properly." Cologne said.

"Shampoo is attending school to learn already." Shampoo stated feebly.

"And you speak this poorly?" Cologne questioned skeptically then adding "Might I suggest getting private lessons soon."

"Shampoo know just who to ask when things settle down." Shampoo responded without hesitation.

"Anyway it's about time to go check up on son-in-law." Cologne said ushering them on their way to the Tendo dojo.

When they got close they heard the loud sound of a high pitched scream "Ahhhh it's hot!"

Shampoo speed up and headed to investigate the noise. What she found was Ranma's girl form rolling around in pain on the bathroom floor with Kasumi kneeling next to her trying to calm her down.

"Ranma what matter? What happened?" Shampoo asked.

"Ranma finally calmed down and pointed at the bath water and yelled "The water is boiling."

Kasumi poked her finger into the water and said "That's strange it only feels lukewarm to me."

"Sonny boy that is the power of the full body cat's tongue" Cologne said to the gathered group "The pressure points I touched earlier make you unable to stand the water necessary to change back. There is a cure, but you'll have to master a technique I teach you then you can come fight me for the cure."

"Great-grandmother that is too too cruel." yelled Shampoo furiously.

"Then help him learn it child" Cologne retorted. (Child you may hate this method but you will thank me later.)

"You old ghoul I'll get you for this" growled Ranma threateningly.

"All in good time but for now I want you to watch this" said Cologne

The elder took them outside and lit a small fire. She then took out a bag of chestnuts and threw them into the fire. She waited for a second before she started picking them out in the blink of an eye. Once she was finished, she proudly displayed her hands to the onlookers showing no burns on any part of her arms.

This made Shampoo really excited recognizing the technique and momentarily forgetting the terrible thing her Great-grandmother had done to her airen and the anger that came with it. She had been begging Cologne to learn that technique for well over a year because she had wanted to improve her speed for unarmed combat, however every time she had mentioned it Cologne had insisted that it was not yet time for her to learn it. Now it seemed she'd be able to learn it alongside Ranma.

"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken secret Amazon Technique that increases speed, Ranma is too too lucky to learn this" said Shampoo enthusiastically.

Ranma's mood however did not get any better after hearing that and continued glaring at the elder. "Old ghoul I'll have this down in no time and then you're going to pay" he declared.

"Looking forward to it sonny boy. When you do learn it, meet me at the cat-café and don't bother coming before you've mastered the technique." Cologne stated. And with that, she pogoed away on her walking stick.

Kasumi went back inside to begin cooking dinner leaving Shampoo and Ranma alone.

"Ranma" Shampoo weakly said staring at the ground "Shampoo sorry Great-grandmother do this to you. Shampoo promise to help get cure for Ranma."

At this point Shampoo had started to cry because of the wave of emotions hitting her at once: anger at Cologne, pity for what Ranma now had to go through, and a sinking feeling that Cologne had inadvertently destroyed whatever chance she had at getting Ranma to love her.

Ranma noticed Shampoo's tears and started to panic; thinking of ways to make her stop crying. It had always been one of those things she had never learned to deal with, sending her brain into overdrive to find a solution. For once the Saotome family curse of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time didn't take affect and Ranma managed to say something the right thing for a change. "Shampoo I don't hold you responsible for any of this. My experience with subpar parenting has taught me you can't blame the mistakes of the parents on the children. Let's just learn this technique and understand just how much of a mistake she just made."

"Thank you Ranma, Shampoo is grateful you is so understanding." Shampoo stammered still fighting back tears as she grabbed Ranma in a tight hug.

This was the moment Akane walked around the corner and witnessed the scene for the first time and jumped to a quick judgment. She threw the closest large object, which happened to be a rock, at Ranma's head.

"Why don't you get a room instead of showing off your perversion to the whole world why don't you" She angrily shouted at the pair.

"I haven't done nothing you jealous tomboy, besides can't you tell she's upset instead of jumping off the deep end at the slightest thing?" Ranma quickly retorted.

Seeing that what Ranma was saying was true, Akane quickly hobbled away from the scene on her crutches to avoid further embarrassment.

Shortly after that Ranma and Shampoo parted ways as well once Shampoo and stopped crying. Both martial artists were extremely tired from the day's events and decided that it would be best to train tomorrow when they were fresh.

That night was tense in both homes. The Tendo residence felt that Ranma's predicament was unforgivable and the father's vowed to help Ranma train. They were also secretly happy that it was an opportunity for them to push Ranma and Akane together at last. Ranma refused their help stating that it would be better if they didn't help him because he already had a good training partner and old wash out martial artists and a part time martial arts wannabe wouldn't be of much help in a situation like this. This statement shocked the room into silence and Ranma just got up and left the room afterwards. In the cat-café neither Amazon even spoke to the other all night, Shampoo just stared coldly at the elder while she continued to ignore it.

The next morning, Shampoo met Ranma in the park woods where nobody would find them. She lit a fire and placed a bucket of water next to it. Placing some nuts in the fire allowed her to coach Ranma through the basics of the technique.

"All Ranma have to do is pick up nuts without burning hand…" started Shampoo when she was interrupted by Ranma's grumblings.

"I think I figured that out Shampoo." The red-head grumbled irritably.

"If Ranma no want help then Shampoo leave and Ranma be stuck in girl-type body" responded Shampoo as she pretended to leave.

"No you can't do that! I'm a guy!" Ranma shouted frantically to get Shampoo to stop.

She turned around looked at the red-head and said "Then stop being mad when Shampoo help train. Ranma learn technique and be able to grab phoenix pill from Great-grandmother."

"What did you say?" asked a curious Ranma.

"Phoenix pill is cure for full body cat tongue you have" Shampoo answered.

"Where is it?" Ranma asked hope of a cure before her.

"Great-grandmother has it. Why you no listen to what Shampoo say?" Shampoo questioned.

"Then let's go get it" Ranma cheered ignoring the question.

"No! Ranma no can take it from her till you learn Amaguriken technique." Shampoo stated grabbing Ranma by the back of the shirt to prevent her from going to try taking the pill while Ranma stood no chance of victory.

"Humph. Fine then let's get started" said Ranma.

They spent the next three hours trying to get Ranma to learn the Amaguriken, but the only thing that happened was Ranma burning her hands and dousing them in the bucket repeatedly. Shampoo also attempted to master the technique while Ranma would cool off. After the end of the session both martial artists had made progress, but were still a long way from getting all the nuts.

"Hey Shampoo I thought you already knew this technique" teased Ranma after they stopped for a break.

"Shampoo know theory only, never got to learn how till now" answered the Amazon.

Ranma's stomach chose this moment to begin rumbling signaling that it was time for lunch. They left the woods and began walking towards town in search of food when they ran into Akane at the park entrance holding up lunches.

"Kasumi asked me to bring you your lunch and to pass along her encouragement." Akane said cheerfully.

"Thanks Kasumi's cooking is great for helping me get through this training. And once I finish this I'll be one step closer to getting my cure." Ranma said practically bouncing as she grabbed the first bag and tore into its contents at lightning speed.

"Cure? Well go get now it then you big dummy." Akane said incredulously.

"Can't have to learn a new technique with Shampoo's help before I can get it" Ranma said in between his gulps of food.

"Alright out with it Shampoo just what are you trying to gain here?" Akane accused the Amazon.

"Shampoo just helping Ranma be man again" Shampoo answered. "Maybe pervert girl only like girl-type Ranma? Tell truth now."

"Who are you calling a pervert girl?" Akane asked furry growing with every word.

"Calling you" Shampoo responded simply.

"I am not!" shouted Akane who had had enough of this and left fuming at the purple haired amazon.

Hours past while Ranma and Shampoo continued training slowly progressing to the point where Ranma was only one short of grabbing all the chestnuts and Shampoo was two short. Noticing that the sun was setting the two called it a day. They parted ways to go rest up and promised to meet back here tomorrow.

On a hill outside Nermia a mysterious man vowed "Once I find you my love we will be together forever". He then walked straight into a tree that he couldn't see. Cursing he put his glasses back on and screamed "Where are you Shampoo?"

Shampoo heard the scream and had only one thought (Oh shit not him).


Author's note: I'm back this chapter took longer than I thought it would. I hope you enjoyed it. Cologne's actions here may be bad but she has her reasons which will be revealed in the next few chapters. The scene with Shampoo and Akane having this conversation after she reveals the phoenix pill is the cure has to be one of my favorites in the entire series so I had to find some way to work it into the story. Ch 8 is already on the way and should come out much quicker than this one. Till next time.