Chapter: Late Afternoon

Kasumi (Late Afternoon):

Kasumi walked into the war room on the fourth floor of Rin's restaurant with a small smile on her face. So far, everything was going according to plan. Actually, it was going better than planned. The only hostile force free in the area was Kodachi, and she was behaving as expected. The fact that Shampoo was trapped in a pet store for the last two hours was an unexpected bonus. It also freed up Daisuke and Hiroshi to hang out and watch Ranma be tortured by Ms. Hinako. While all the players had volunteered freely when they found out what was happening, Tofu insisted that they receive some reward for their trouble. Ms. Hinako's request had been quite simple: Ranma was to talk to her for one hour and answer her questions honestly, but in Conversational English, not in Japanese. The martial artist had agreed with a wince. Now his two friends were delighting at the questions the teacher asked her student – Ranma was very red in the face. While she was respecting his privacy for the most part (as most people understood it), she was definitely pushing the limits for the normally reserved young man. And some of the questions involved a certain blue-black haired student. Kasumi noted that the timer still had ten minutes on it.

Nabiki was out handling the business end of things. Her reward was to be 10% of the take. Tofu had decided that he was not bankrolling this operation if Kodachi fell for it – he wanted his money back if the scam worked. Otherwise, the doctor had planned on reimbursing Mr. Rin for the use of the room and food consumed from his own pocket. Mr. Rin hadn't wanted to hear it, but Kasumi convinced him that if the operation turned a profit, he should really benefit too. Kasumi's task was to coordinate and track everyone. Her reward was simple: she wanted a lovely evening at the restaurant Ranma was taking Akane a week after the young couple went. Tofu agreed without hesitation.

Mousse was out watching over Sasuke and Kodachi again, freeing Ranma to fulfill his bargain with Ms. Hinako. The Chinese young man had already indulged in a huge American style cheeseburger with French fries, onion rings, and a thick chocolate shake courtesy of the store Ukyo was currently sleeping in. Kasumi had scolded him about eating such a gluttonous meal, but Mousse simply responded that he had always wanted to do something like that away from Cologne's prying eyes. Still, Kasumi didn't scold him too hard – everyone should be allowed an indulgence once in a while. Mousse had been the one who destroyed Kodachi's fighting ribbons; Ranma was the one who "bumped" into Kodachi and removed all her weapons. Ranma had continued to watch over Kodachi until it was obvious that she would not deviate from her plan of attack. Mousse had left him in the morning to join Ms. Hinako as she watched over Ukyo – at least until Ukyo unknowingly hip-checked Ms. Hinako, resulting in Ukyo's current predicament. When Kasumi had asked Mousse what he wanted, the young man answered that he wanted to learn Tofu's aura trick to which Tofu agreed.

The good doctor was lying down for a nap right now. After initially helping Daisuke and Hiroshi watch over Shampoo, his primary job had been to watch over Konatsu, something no one else could do without being noticed. It had resulted in a fair amount of illusion and shape-changing. As soon as Konatsu went to ground to watch over a sleeping Ukyo, Tofu had immediately returned to Mr. Rin's to recharge – right after he checked on the boys and decided to hit Shampoo with a bottle of water. The original plan had been to delay Shampoo by forcing her to find hot water (with Daisuke and Hiroshi providing discrete interference), but Providence had seen fit to involve a pet store, something which had amused the two boys to no end. If no one released Shampoo by the end of the day, the two lads were to be her rescuers. The boys had requested no reward, only to be able to "pig-out" at Mr. Rin's. The good owner had remarked to Kasumi that the request might be the most expensive part of the whole operation. Kasumi felt that the torture Ranma was currently undergoing might also be part of the boys' reward.

The female trio were not privy to the full extent of the operation. The whole point was that they could enjoy themselves on a shopping expedition, not worry about details. The three young women had been assured that they would be watched over, given a few items with instructions to throw off their pursuers for the morning, and then enjoy a nice lunch after shopping. The girls had insisted that the boys keep their distance from the changing rooms (something Kasumi agreed with); Tofu promised that he'd make them behave – the dress was suppose to be a surprise for Akane to spring on Ranma after all. Originally, the shopping trip was to end after the lunch, with Akane returning to the store to get the dress she had chosen, but if Kodachi, Shampoo, or Ukyo found their way to Ginza, the operation went on the offensive – which it had mid-morning.

Hinako's timer finally dinged and Ranma laid his head down on the table as Daisuke and Hiroshi broke into laughter.

"You're an evil woman, Ms. Hinako," was all the martial artist said.

The pre-teen leaned over and patted the young man on the shoulder. "It wasn't that bad, Mr. Saotome."

"Oh, yes it was ma'am. Yes, it was," Daisuke chimed in. Hinako winked at her two laughing students. Kasumi suppressed her own grin.

The door opened behind Kasumi and she turned to watch Tofu enter, which surprised her. "I thought you were napping?" she asked.

"I was, but I only need so long to recharge. I decided that it might be wise to check on Konatsu," he told her. The rest also stopped to listen.

"So, what's he doing?" Ranma prompted.

"Currently, he's banging his head against a wall. He and Ukyo sprung Shampoo. I think he had managed to get Ukyo to call it a day, but Shampoo got her all riled up again. Now the two ladies are going to try and find Akane and get the dress from her. Konatsu pointed out to them that, so far, Akane and company had been one step ahead of them. He also pointed out that it was an odd coincidence that both of them had been taken out at roughly the same time," Tofu answered. "They are not listening to him though – they tore off in the direction Shampoo last saw the trio heading."

"Let me get this straight," Ms. Hinako requested. "They have been all but told this is a setup, and they are still continuing on?"

"Seems to be that way," Tofu agreed.

"I've taught some thick-headed students in the past, but these two take the cake."

"They are not thick," Ranma disagreed. "Just obsessed. But we need to go out and get Akane, Sayuri, and Yuka. They should have finished that list of stores by now." The four sitting down stood.

"No, you don't," Sayuri cut in as she led the way into the room. She was carrying a dress bag over her back.

"We are done," Akane agreed. "Mousse helped us get past Shampoo and Ukyo. Now he's with Nabiki as she finishes up. They should be right behind us shortly. "

"Did Kodachi stick with the plan?" Kasumi asked.

"Right down the line," Yuka said, also carrying a dress bag. "Talk about obsessed…" she added with a shake of a head.

"Well, maybe she will wake up a bit when she finds out that she's been taken," Tofu commented.

"Optimist," Ranma snorted.

"We will see," Tofu responded. "I was hoping the ladies would quit, but it seems we have to bloody their noses a bit."

Kasumi sighed. "So we go forward then?" she asked sadly.

"I'm afraid so, Love," Tofu told her.

"It won't really hurt them, Kasumi," Daisuke added, "But they won't soon forget it either."

"I suppose."

"All right," Tofu said decisively. "Daisuke and Hiroshi, it's time for you to go to the Jouda dojo. Let Hideo and Shizuka know what happened and get the package ready. Wait there for our phone call."

The two young men nodded and turned to leave. "We will meet you at the train station with the package," Hiroshi told Akane just before he left.

Tofu checked the train station schedule in his pocket. He then spoke to Ranma: "As soon as Mousse gets back, you and he should head back toward Nerima to be waiting when our three young ladies get there. The rest of us will follow the ladies back at a discrete distance until we hit Nerima. Shizuka left some of Hideo's charms that I can use to mask everyone's trail."

"Except me," Nabiki threw out when she walked into the room with Mousse. "I still need to get Akane's dress." She looked at her younger sister. "Do you know which one you'd like?"

"How'd we do?" Akane asked in a small voice.

"Well enough, little sister. Which one do you want?"

Akane blushed a beet red, and moved to whisper in her sister's ear. Nabiki's grin became the last thing a swimmer might see in deep water as she listened to Akane. "Done!" Nabiki said.

"I'll go with Nabiki," Ms. Hinako said. "The suspense might kill me otherwise." Nabiki nodded. Her disputes with Ms. Hinako had been settled long ago.

Mousse spoke up: "One thing you should know though – Kodachi's called it a day. She's sure she has wrecked Akane's date. I overheard her tell Sasuke she wanted to go home for a soak in the tub. She really has no idea how us 'common folk' work, does she?" The others just shook their heads.

"All right then – you two head off," the Doc said, looking at Mousse and Ranma. "You may be able to catch up with Daisuke and Hiroshi." The two young men nodded and left. The Doc looked at everyone else. "We should hang out a while and let the others get set up."

"And then?" Kasumi prompted.

"And then we thank Mr. Rin, settle up, and finish this," Tofu replied suppressing a small grin.

Everyone in the room wondered at the sparkle of mischief in the normally sober doctor's eyes, but only Kasumi knew how deep it truly ran…and that the operation had its own rewards for the doctor besides her thanks...