The Horse and the Butterfly
By Jim Robert Bader
(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi)
Chapter Ten.
Shaken But Not Disturbed
Nexus of Worlds-Limbo,
Time Patrol HQ, Station #317
"Well, another mission, another casualty toll," said Time Agent Saotome Ranma as he and his companions strode up to join Nabiki and her chief assistants at their cubicle, "Sorry about the mess we left behind, Nabiki, but..."
"Never mind that, Ranma-kun," his wife declared, giving both her husband and their adopted daughter the look, which same caused the trio to halt in their tracks and do a collective mental back pedal, "We need to talk."
"Uh oh," Ryoga murmured to his partner, "I know what that means..."
"Me too," Ranma gulped, "What did we do this time?"
"You mean besides blow up a bunch of stuff and kill a lot of bad guys, Pop?" said the perky redhead at the side of the two older men.
"Yeah, besides that," Ranma said, clearing his throat as he said, "Ah...Nabiki-
chan..."
"Yes, Ranma-kun?" she purred, her eyes boring holes into the back of his skull as if daring him to make a full confession.
"...If it's about us taking Ranko to go visit the old haunts," Ranma began, "We kinda thought...well...we'd unwind a bit after all that excitement and..."
"Ah...Pop?" the redheaded teenaged girl leaned close to her father's side and said, "You really wanna bring that up around Mom? Suppose she asks about Meiko...?"
"Just let me do the talking, Kid," Ranma murmured back, "Standard operating procedure."
"Check," Ranko agreed, "Besides, you got more hit points than me, Old Man."
"Yeah, and I'm probably gonna need them," he straightened out again and coughed a bit before saying, "Nabiki-chan...?"
"We'll have to talk about that another time," Nabiki replied in tones that caused both her husband, adopted daughter and best friend to collectively gulp in dread, "Right now we have a more urgent matter to discuss...that is...after Ryo-chan and Gos here make their own informal confession."
"Huh?" Ranma looked towards the brown haired girl and the slightly built technician beside her, "What have you two clowns been doing this time?"
One could sense the relief in his voice at having the subject of his recent activities be momentarily diverted elsewhere on other likely parties, but nonetheless his focus coming to rest on his wife's two most trusted aides was cause enough for any mere mortal to quail. After all, one the most dangerous human-shaped force of destruction known to man or mother nature turns his gaze on you, it is a good time to worry.
Ryonami cleared her throat first and said, "Ah...well...it really isn't all that big a deal, Ranma-kun..."
"Um...yes," Gosunkugi agreed, "It was just a fairly minor, almost routine matter...sort of like a bet that Ryo-chan and I were having..."
"A bet?" Ranma fairly bristled, "You don't mean...one of those things?"
"If, by that, you mean to infer an altered timeline set apart from the baseline that we know by the slight alteration of one or two seemingly minor and random events," Nabiki replied, "Then you have got it in one. These two clowns monkeyed around with a revised timeline and brought about some rather significant changes all to test a little theory they had...and three guesses what the subject was?"
"Um," Ryoga spoke up hesitantly, "You mean they set it up so Ranma here doesn't marry Akane?"
"Bingo!" Nabiki declared, arching her voice decidedly as she added, "And now guess who wound up as Ranma-kun's brand spanking new fianc e?"
"But...I don't understand, Mom," Ranko declared, "I thought you'd like that if there was a timeline where you got to be the primary iinazuke."
"Normally yes," Nabiki replied, "But as for the circumstances under which my younger counterpart got engaged to a sixteen year old Ranma-kun...well...have a look at the monitor here and see just how this timeline's been shaping up during your absence."
"Huh?" Ranma blinked as his attention turned to the holographically projected display hovering in the air over his wife's work station, and then his expression became one of surprise as he declared, "Hey! Isn't that the sporting arena where me and Senzenen had that match...?"
"Really?" Ranko also stared at the image in fascination, "You fought against Coach Senzenin, Pop? Wow...I never heard about that..."
"It wasn't one of your father's most sterling moments, Ranko-chan," her uncle Ryoga murmured, "But I remember that match too...in fact, I was the bone of contention for your mother and Senzenin..."
"Hey, it wasn't all about you, Porky," Ranma declared, "In fact, looks like things happened pretty much the way I remember...only...Nabiki? That's you in that outfit?" his eyes faintly goggled.
"Get your tongue back in your mouth and watch, Mister," his wife sternly ordered, hiding the slight smirk that crooked along the edges of her mouth, "Things are about to get interesting, and from the looks of things I think my younger self is finding out the hard way that there can be casualties to every battle..."
Kolhotz High School Gymnasium/Arena Nerima, Japan-Circa 1992
"RANMA-KUN!" the cry caused even Akane to feel her blood turn cold as she stared across the ice at her older sister, holding in her arms the small black form of a pig who was also staring with a round-eyed expression.
"Uh...miss?" one of the announcers at the table said, "Do you mind not taking the pig? It belongs to Azusa and..."
"ASUZA?" Akane shot a glare at the man that silenced him completely, "No way! He belongs to me! She hasn't any right to my friend!"
"Friend?" another of the bruised and battered boys at the table inquired.
"That's right!" Akane declared, "He's mine...you want to make something of it?"
The trio at the table immediately assented that they did not want any more trouble. They had already make the mistake of attempting to oppose her recovering of Ryoga, and they paid for it with injuries that she had meted out for their troubles.
"Well, good," Akane declared as she turned her back on them, "It's your own fault you tried to stop me without waiting to hear my explanation. Let that be a lesson to you about taking stolen property that doesn't belong to you, and when I get my hands on that Azusa I'll make sure she gets that loud and clear, you got me?"
The three young men nodded their heads in profuse agreement, for as much as they idolized Shiratori Azusa, the dark haired girl before them was far more scary!
Akane dismissed these clowns from her mind as she turned back to lend her sympathy to her grieving sister. As much as she had never really liked Ranma, the fact that he had obviously sacrificed himself to save Nabiki did a lot to redeem him in her eyes. Say what she might about the rude, obnoxious pervert, at least he died a hero, which was more than she could say for Senzenen Mikado when she paid him a little much-needed vengeance...
"Saotome?" her father, Soun, was asking tensely as he gripped his friend by the shoulder.
"Now Tendo-kun," Genma tried to reassure his friend, "The boy's probably just resting...he wouldn't let a little bump that that get to him, believe me."
"Oh my," Kasumi remarked, "I certainly hope you are right about that, Ojisama, or Nabiki will be so hurt..."
"And what will happen to our schools if our children can't unite the houses?" Soun cried as he shook Genma by his lapels with great distress in his expression.
"C-Calm down, Tendo-kun!" Genma frantically protested, "Why don't I go down there and check on the Boy for myself...I'm sure he's only faking..."
"Nabiki-chan," Kasumi sighed, gently dismissing the two older men as her heart went out to her younger sister whom she intuitively knew had to be going through several kinds of hell, and for once without a sister's comforting shoulder to lean upon as she contemplated the possibility of losing her iinazuke forever...
"Ranma-kun...why?" Nabiki asked, "Why did you do it, you Baka? You got hurt for my sake...why?"
"I think you know the answer to that one," Kensuke gently murmured.
"No matter what else you can say about Saotome," Aido gently added, "He cared enough about you to risk his own life. I'm sorry...I wish I could do more to help, but..."
"No," Nabiki felt tears in her eyes, and for once she looked nothing like the mercenary that she was often called by her fianc , "You Baka...you idiot...how could you do this to me? I'm...I'm not worth it, Ranma...I should have let go...I..."
"So...he didn't let go," another voice intruded, "The first one to defy the Goodbye Whirl, but he paid the price just the same. No one could survive such a landing, every bone was doubtlessly crushed in his body..."
Nabiki suddenly felt her stomach churn as she heard that arrogant, preening voice of self-contentment, and her hands balled into fists as a growing anger started to flare into raw fury.
"Senzenen," Kensuke growled, "Don't you have any sense of decency?"
"Yeah," Aido snarled, "Give us all a break and go off somewhere and die, will you? I'll be happy to sell you the rope."
"Absurd," Senzenen sniffed, "I can salute him as a gallant enemy, and I acknowledge the great courage he displayed in protecting his iinazuke, but in the end he fell to the superior opponent..."
"Shut up!" Nabiki snarled, squeezing her eyes tightly as she fought to halt the flow of her tears, not wanting to show such weakness.
"Eh?" Senzenen asked as he stared at the woman whose lips he still coveted.
"You're nothing like him," Nabiki said with great deliberation, "You're just a stuck up, preening, fancy-dressed dandy with delusions of godhood, and you're not even half the man...that he was..."
"Oooohhh..." Azusa said just then, "Azusa doesn't feel so good...Azusa dizzy..."
With that the frilly haired girl tumbled onto her back and lay there still while the world continued to whirl all around her.
"Do you hear me?" Nabiki turned her rage towards Mikado, "You're nothing compared to him! Ranma-kun was willing to fight to protect me...but what do you fight for except your own damned ego?"
"I...what do you mean?" Senzenen frowned, "Are you saying that you find him more noble than Senzenen?""
"Yeeessss!" Nabiki stressed the word as if addressing a small child, "When compared to a pampered child like you, Ranma-kun was like a prince in shining armor..."
"Is that...a good or a bad thing?" the alleged corpse asked for himself.
Nabiki all but jumped as she stared back down at the recumbent boy laying on the ice beneath her and for a moment words utterly failed her.
Not so with Kensuke, who managed to gasp, "You're alive?"
"Whoah!" Aido blinked, "Holy resurrection..."
"You live?" Senzenen asked, then frowned, "Or were you only pretending to be dead?"
"Ah, just resting up to get my wind back," Ranma smiled up at Nabiki, "Sorry to disappoint you, but I needed a few seconds to recover...you're heavy."
"Y-You...you...!" again words failed Nabiki, and she was suddenly torn between a desire to strangle or embrace the boy who had given her such a start.
"I don't believe it," Kensuke remarked, "You really are indestructible..."
"Naw," Ranma reassured them, sitting upright under his own power, "A little blow like that ain't enough to slow me down, see?"
With that he flipped off of the ice and back onto his feet, only to freeze up with his face contorting into a make of pain and shock, as though the effort had sent a tremor through his entire body.
"Uh...are you okay, Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked, still dazed to even find him capable of moving.
"Gah...sure..." Ranma winced as he tried to ball his fists and act resolute, though the effort of even slight movement clearly was paining him beyond normal endurance, "I'm still...gonna get even...with that bastard..."
"Look father," Kasumi smiled, releasing a breath that she had been holding without knowing that she had been holding it all this time, "Ranma-kun is all right...um...well...mostly..."
"Thank the Kami!" Soun exclaimed, "The houses will be joined after all! Isn't that great news, Saotome? Saotome?"
Genma looked up from where he had been in the process of buying himself some ricecakes from a vendor, seeing the angry glower of his best friend turned in his direction.
"Saotome!" Soun all but shouted, taking off at a run as Genma hastily chose the better part of discretion, "Can't you for once put family honor above feeding your stomach?"
"Oh father," Kasumi sighed, quietly reflecting that some things were much more predictable than the weather...
"I salute your tenacity, but your bravado is without merit," Senzenen remarked, "Even though you seem to have miraculously survived our attack, it is clear that you are too hurt to even move without assistance. Too bad, I was so looking forward to crushing you more thoroughly, but instead I must be content with declaring myself the obvious victor, for which I will now claim the spoils of this match."
"Get stuffed!" Ranma growled through grit teeth, "I ain't giving up now, and if you touch her..."
Nabiki sighed, lowered her head and said, "Okay, fine, whatever."
"Huh?" Ranma blinked.
"What was that?" Kensuke asked.
"What do you...?" Aido began to say when Nabiki continued.
"I'll concede...you can have your stupid kiss, just...no more already," the middle Tendo sister said with a tired sigh, "Just spare me the macho bull act..."
"Nabiki?" Ranma tried to turn his head towards her but could only move his eyes her way by a fraction.
"I see," Mikado mused, "So...you would throw in the towel to spare his life, to say nothing of the humiliation of another thrashing. Very well, I accept your terms, fair maiden, although I would rather you swoon to me for much different reasons..."
"Nabiki!" Ranma did manage this time to crane his head as he looked in shock at his iinazuke.
"Please stop pushing it, Ranma-kun," Nabiki pleaded, folding her knees before her and sitting in the demure way of a "proper" Japanese women, "I know how badly hurt you are, and you took that hit for me. If you go on as you are you really might be more seriously injured and I...I can't have that on my conscience."
"But Nabiki-!" he protested.
"Please?" Nabiki turned her eyes up towards him with a look of sincere pleading written large in her expression, "Do it for me. Let me repay my debt to you for saving my life in my own way, Ranma-kun. I...I can't stand the idea that you could be crippled or injured..."
"Just a moment," Kensuke suddenly spoke up, "I'm sorry, Tendo-san, but I think I've heard just about enough."
"Right," Aido agreed, "We can't let you two sacrifice yourselves to deal with this bully. Leave them to us...after all, the Golden Pair are our problem."
"You two?" Senzenen scoffed, "Don't make me laugh! We defeated you easily the last time you tried challenging us on the ice..."
"Yeah, I know," Kensuke glowered, "And it's stuck in my craw ever since. I've had to live with the shame of what you put me and Aido through all these months since our bout, but no more! This time I'm wiping that arrogant smirk off your face once and for all, Senzenen!"
"Yeah," Aido agreed, "And I still owe you for what you did to me big time, Shiratori! Kensuke-kun's not the only one here with an ax to grind with you two!"
"Hey...wait a minute!" Ranma protested, "I ain't given up yet...!"
"Oh yeah?" Nabiki reached out with her index finger and merely tapped Ranma in the rib cage. All at once he doubled over in pain, to which she just sighed and said, "Like I said, Ranma-kun, don't overdo it."
"Leave this to us, Saotome," Kensuke said gravely as he squared off to face Senzenen, "You've shamed me enough by standing up to this jerk, now my pride as a Martial Artist won't let me rest until he's face-first in the ice and dusted!"
"The honor of Kolhotz High School is at stake here," Aido agreed, "We're let these two trash our reputation enough with their antics, but now they're gonna learn what real school spirit feels like!"
"Oh?" Azusa asked, "Why is everybody so mad at little Azusa? She only wants to..." all at once she looked to the side as the announcer started calling out for the change in sparring partners, when her eyes came to focus upon the empty cage sitting upon their table, at which point she cried out, "Aaieeee! What happened to Azusa's little Charlotte?"
"Charlotte?" Ranma winced, "What's that ditz going on about this time?"
"I think she means that little black pig we saw her bring in earlier," Nabiki frowned, "Say...didn't that piglet look kind of familiar?"
"What, you mean like the one Akane brought in the other day?" Ranma asked, then winced as the slight motion of his body sent another wave of spasms coursing all throughout his nervous system.
"You dare speak to me about the honor of Kolhotz?" Senzenen asked as he stood ready to face his new opponent, "After I've brought victory after victory at the doorstep of our school?"
"Yes, at the cost of making us a laughing stock because of your womanizing behavior!" Kensuke shot back, "Don't you know that the male students of our school can't go anywhere without being taunted with the label of 'Womanizer,' while the girls hear cracks about rampant kleptomania and make a point of grabbing up their belongings?"
"You should thank us that we are feared and respected throughout the length and breadth of Japan," Senzenen countered, "But then again, what would you know about school reputations, Nail-Biter?"
"That's right, go ahead and insult my school, Rich Boy," Kensuke smiled as he held up a hand full of his trademark iron nails, "But you won't be laughing much when you start dancing to my new tune."
"Hah, you tried that tactic with me once already, fool," Senzenen replied, "What makes you think this time will be any different?"
"Just because," Kensuke explained, then promptly placed the nails in his mouth and started loudly chewing, grinding them into iron bits, at which point he commenced to spitting them out at the ice where Senzenen had been standing.
"Hah, too slow as always!" Senzenen taunted as he skated backwards, moving into a rapid figure-eight as he dodged the nails that struck at the ice in rapid staccato fashion, "And now the counter-WHOOF!"
The handsome boy's intended charge came to a rude and abrupt end as the ice gave way beneath his feet, plunging him into the swimming pool and the icy water a foot beneath where they had been standing.
"Let that be a lesson to you, Mikado the Molester," Kensuke smirked, "Not all attacks are aimed at you directly, and breaking the ice is a Yamashina Ryu specialty..."
"WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP LITTLE AZUSA FIND HER MISSING CHARLOTTE?" Azusa wailed in a plaintive-if-angry fashion.
"What, you mean that little pig of yours?" Aido reached into her leotard and pulled something out from the gulf of her cleavage, "Does he look anything like this?"
"Charlotte!" Azusa made a grab for the outstretched object, only to pause as she realized that she was holding a small stuffed animal in her hands, at which point she said, "This isn't Charlotte...?"
"BINGO!" Aido grinned as she whipped out a wooden mallet from seeming nowhere and used it to clobber the frilly-haired Azusa in the back of her noggin.
"Whoah," Ranma remarked, "That was some sneak attack..."
"Good misdirection there," Nabiki agreed, "But where on earth did you find that wooden mallet?"
"Trade secret," Aido winked, "And after a while you just stop asking."
"Can't say I'm sorry to see that little twerp get what's coming to her," Ranma remarked, "But how long do you think Senzenen can hold out underwater?"
"Long enough to teach him some humility, I hope," Kensuke replied, "Don't worry, I won't let him drown, but that icy water ought to cool down his ardor a little so maybe-WHAAT?"
All at once there were a number of sharp raps on the ice around Kensuke, forming a rough circle, then all at once the ice he stood upon upended, flipping over and dumping the rangy boy into the very icy water in which he had deposited Mikado. To everyone's mutual surprise Mikado appeared clinging to the underside of his makeshift ice floe, shivering like a leaf in an ice-storm.
"C-C-Cold...sooo cold...!" he stammered through clenched teeth.
"Gah!" Ranma cried out in dismay as he got splashed with a spray of icy water, immediately triggering his curse so that he began to shrink in size and dimensions. Instinctively Ranma-chan threw her arms over her head and face to cover for the transformation, but had anyone been looking her way her secret would likely become a moot point to all concerned parties.
"Kensuke-kun!" Aido cried in sisterly dismay, sensing her brother's immediate peril.
"Look out!" Nabiki and Ranma-chan called out together, causing Aido to spin about and look in dismay at Azusa-who had miraculously recovered herself and was now sporting the mother of all giant mallets which she aimed towards the defenseless Aido.
"You shouldn't take your eyes off little Azusa!" the kawaii skater declared as she attempted to smash Aido like the proverbial bug, but a figure moved to intercept the mallet, and all at once it was knocked loose from her hand by an angry Akane, who stood now defensively between Azusa and her intended target.
"Akane?" Nabiki said in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
"I came to help of course," Akane responded without taking her eyes off of Azusa, "Since neither one of you can fight at the moment, allow me to uphold the honor of the Anything Goes school. And while we're on the subject...catch!" she threw a very large towel towards Ranma, who caught it one-handed and immediately used it to cover over her head.
"Thanks," Ranma-chan called from beneath her concealment, "That's one I owe you..."
"That's okay," Akane replied, "Nabiki can just put it on my tab."
"I will?" Nabiki blinked in some confusion.
"RAN-MA!" an angry voice declared, causing both the pigtailed girl and her shorthaired companion to cringe reflexively as they knew by now that this signified trouble.
To their surprise, however, Ryoga dropped down from the overhead rafters and aimed his fist not at them but at the ice itself directly over the place where Kensuke had vanished. The ice shattered as Ryoga vaulted away, managing not to get wet in the process, though when his feet touched down on the ice he immediately lost his balance.
"GAH!" Kensuke cried as he broke free and gasped for air, "Cold-Freezing!"
That galvanized Nabiki, who turned to Ranma-chan and said, "We've got to get him out of there or the hypothermia could kill him!"
"You don't gotta tell me that twice," Ranma-chan agreed, deciding to risk exposure by moving to the edge of where the ice was still solid and reaching out a hand to grip the helpless Kensuke. Aido and Nabiki immediately moved to take Ranma-chan's other hand and provide her with much-needed assistance and traction. Together they pulled the half-frozen Kensuke clear of the ice where upon he started shivering profusely, every bit as much as Mikado, whose teeth were chattering worse than a pair of castenedas.
"Ranma...where did you go?" Ryoga demanded as he fought to regain his footing on the ice, then saw the figure with the towel over its head bending down to assist the other boy and at once snarled, "Ranma...now we finish this!"
"Ryoga-kun!" Akane snapped, "We don't have time for that...!"
"There's always time for revenge!" Ryoga snarled as he snatched the towel away, only to halt with his fist in mid-motion and stare at the unfamiliar face revealed from beneath it, "Huh? Ah...who are you?"
"Oh...ah...silly boy," Ranma-chan feigned innocence, "Who do you think I am?"
"Later!" Aido snapped, "We've got to get Kensuke warm and quick or he's have frostbite!"
"Right," Nabiki said as she turned to the redhead, "Ran-ah-Ranko, could you give me a little hand here?"
"Ranko?" Ranma-chan repeated, "Who's...?"
"Don't be dense, Ranko-CHAN," Aido said with emphasis, "Do what your cousin says and help us get Ken-kun here to the school lockers."
"Ah...all right," Ranma-chan/Ranko replied, realizing that time was of the essence and that fighting with Ryoga just then would be largely counter-
productive.
"Just leave everything to Ryoga-kun and me, right Ryoga-kun?" Akane risked a smile and a glance in his direction.
"Eh?" Azusa turned to the lost boy as the two other girls dragged a helpless Kensuke from the ice, and then her gaze seemed to focus upon the peculiar collar that he was presently sporting, which prompted her to cry out in delight, "Charlotte! Charlotte! I've found you!"
"Nani?" Ryoga flinched as he stared at the very girl who had so recently become his tormentor.
"Hey, you leave Ryoga-kun alone, you!" Akane snapped, "Just who do you think you are, taking other people's property and locking poor P-chan up in a cage?"
"P-chan?" Ryoga blinked, "Who's...?"
"You want to take little Azusa's Charlotte away?" Azusa scowled (albeit in a very kawaii manner), "You're a very bad person!"
"Shut up, you Thief!" Akane snarled, "It's about time somebody taught you some manners-huh?"
All of a sudden she discovered that Senzenen Mikado had just made a miraculous recovery and was standing next to her and taking one of her hands in his own with a starry-eyed expression.
"Such fierceness and beauty in one so demure and gentle," he fairly radiated charm (which might have accounted for how the icy water had evaporated so suddenly from his person), "Those eyes, that face, that delicate chin...your beauty has captivated me and I stand bewitched within your presence."
"Huh?" Akane repeated herself, wondering why this handsome fruitcake was coming on to her all of a sudden.
"Hey you!" Ryoga protested, "What do you think you're-?" but his first step forward proved to be a mistake as he lost his balance again and went tumbling backward onto the ice.
"Ryoga-kun..." Akane started to say when all at once she found herself bent backward into the very same swoon that had almost claimed her sister earlier, Mikado poised above her with a rakish smile upon his lips as he once again attempted to seduce her.
"A-Akane...?" Ryoga gasped, fighting the feeling of helplessness as he attempted to regain his bearings.
"Forgive my impertinence but I cannot help myself for yielding to such temptations," Mikado continued, "Permit me to bestow upon you my coveted thousandth kiss, which has well and truly been saved for such a delicate..."
All at once her knee connected with the side of his face, and Akane worked her way free with a backflip that brought her ice-skates underneath her, and unlike Ryoga she managed to remain standing.
"Get a grip, creep!" Akane declared, "I've been fighting off perverts like you for months, and I'm not about to let you or anyone else do to me what you tried to do to my sister!"
"Oh my," Mikado remarked as she felt his bruised chin, "I do believe that the maiden is shy..."
"Sounds more like you make her sick," Azusa remarked before smiling at Ryoga again and saying, "Charlotte...you're so talented! How did you become so big all of a sudden?"
"Gahhh-you're mistaken!" Ryoga blurted out, "I'm not your Charlotte or anything like that! My name is Hibiki Ryoga, and I'm nobody's pet Charlotte!"
"No, you're little Azusa's Charlotte, see?" the frilly skater pointed at his neckline, "You have little Azusa's collar which she locked around you with this key," and she pulled said key out from the middle of her own cleavage.
"Gaaaah...the key!" Ryoga lurched for the object in question, but Azusa dropped down and passed between his legs and tripped him forward.
"Ryoga-kun!" Akane cried as she automatically reached out to try and catch him, and thereby committed the exact same tactical error as had her sister.
Mikado moved into position and gripped his partner's ankles, then once again he heaved the lot of them aloft once again and cried, "And now once again...the Merry-Go-Round Couple Cleaver...!"
Nabiki glanced up as she heard the roar of the crowd in the arena signify that important developments were going on behind them, but then she shrugged her shoulders and turned back to regard Kensuke, who was presently thawing out in the locker room Jacuzzi.
"Oh man!" he was wincing, as the whirlpool of warm water swirled over his now-
naked body, "Pins and needles...definitely getting back my circulation..."
"Well, that's good," Ranma-chan responded, "You were almost as blue as a fish on ice for a while there, Buddy. You sure you're gonna be all right?"
"Oh yeah," Kensuke smiled, "Of course if any lovely young ladies care to climb in with me to give me a full body massage, then I'm pretty sure I'll recover that much swifter."
"He'll be all right," Aido assured the other two girls before glaring at her brother, "Honestly, Kensuke-kun, get your mind out of the gutter. You really think Ranma and Nabiki here are gonna fall for a line like that?"
"Hey, it couldn't hurt to ask," Kensuke made a warding gesture as if expecting to get hit, "I mean...I know better than to ask...I mean...you're a guy, and she's your iinazuke, but still..."
"That's right," Ranma-chan replied, "She's my iinazuke, and what the heck are you thinking? You think I'm some kind of a pervert just 'cause I turn into a girl when I get wet?"
"Weeeelll," Kensuke weighed his options VERY carefully before replying to that, "I know you're a pretty stand-up guy, Saotome, but you have to admit that...well...with looks like yours...a guy can be tempted to forget that..."
"Yeah, right," Ranma-chan sniffed before turning to Nabiki and saying, "What is it with this body? You think the curse makes guys go nuts over me, 'Biki?"
"Actually," Nabiki replied (electing to ignore that hated nickname as she was still concerned over his condition), "Even I have to concede that you do present a rather tempting package for most guys, Ranma-kun. You ever take a good, hard look in the mirror?"
"Not unless I have to," Ranma-chan replied with a faintly disgusted expression.
"By the way," Aido stared at the redheaded girl, "You seem to be moving around just fine since you transformed, Saotome. Any soreness in your body?"
"Nope," Ranma-chan flexed an arm and smiled confidently, "I'm fit as a fiddle. Weird...guess maybe when I change into a girl all the hurts in my guy form go away, huh?"
"Let's test that theory," Nabiki said as she dipped her hand into the whirlpool then splashed her iinazuke with the water, causing Ranma-chan to revert back to her guy form.
"Hey, give me a warning next time you wanna do that!" Ranma-kun sputtered, "That water's hot!"
"Really?" Kensuke asked, "It doesn't seem that bad to me..."
"Still no aches and pains, Saotome?" Aido asked.
"Huh?" Ranma glanced down at himself then said, "No...I'm still fine. Weird...like I healed back completely when I changed..."
"Useful information," Nabiki decided, "In fact it could even save your life sometime. We'll file it away for later study."
"Well...lucky you Goddammit!," Kensuke remarked, "I wish I had a gift for healing like that, but it's going to take me a while to get all my strength back after that little dip in the ice."
"Hey man, I'm sorry about that," Ranma was instantly contrite, "If I'd been on my guard against that Goodbye Whirl thing..."
"Hey, don't worry about it," Aido said, "You're the first guy we've ever known who didn't let go when you could saved yourself. You really were worried about Nabiki there taking a hit?"
"Huh?" Ranma blinked, "Ah...well..."
"You needn't have worried about her," Kensuke reassured him, "If you had let go then Azusa would have sent you flying while Senzenen would have moved to catch her. Net result, you go splat while he takes his kiss. He's done it to everyone who's gone up against him, including me and Aido."
"He did that to you?" Nabiki asked in surprise.
"Yeah," Kensuke glanced down at the foaming water, "Only I wasn't strong enough to hold on to Aido, so I got smacked into the wall while Senzenen kissed her..."
"For the last time, it wasn't your fault, Kensuke-kun!" Aido insisted, "You couldn't stand up to those kinds of forces any more than me. In fact, if Azusa had lost it with us then we'd have both gone flying into the wall. Lucky me that pervert was fast enough to catch me, even if I had to wash my mouth out with garlic salt for a week to get the taste to go away..."
There was a very loud crashing noise that rang out over their heads, and then another cheer rang out from the sporting arena.
"Kuso!" Kensuke glanced up, "Sounds like the Golden Pair's claimed another victim..."
"Score one more for the Goodbye Whirl," Aido signed in resignation.
"Akane...!" Nabiki started to gasp.
"You don't think...?" Ranma started to ask.
"Dry up and blow away, Saotome!" an angry voice cried out as Akane stormed angrily into the room, "The nerve of that guy! Who the heck does he think he is trying to pull a stunt like that...?"
"Who?" Nabiki asked, "Ryoga?"
"Ryoga?" Akane halted in mid-clomp as she had not removed her skates when entering the lockers, "Hell no...that was Senzenen who just went into orbit! And I hope he bounces a couple of times when he lands..."
"Hey, slow down a little," Aido urged, "What happened?"
"You mean you two survived the Goodbye Whirl?" Senzenen blinked.
"Oh yeah, that thing," Akane snorted, "Thank Ryoga-kun for that, he stopped that pervert from hurling us both into a wall, like with you guys."
"He did?" Ranma replied.
"Like...how?" Nabiki wondered.
"Well," Akane frowned a bit, "It was really odd...I mean...the Golden Pair had us in that Merry-Go-Round thing, and I was doing everything I could to hold on for dear life to Ryoga when he told me to grip him by one arm so he could free his other hand, and then...ah...well...he reached up and pulled off one of his bandanas..."
"Say what?" Ranma blinked.
"What do you mean...one of his bandanas?" Nabiki marveled.
"Just like I said," Akane replied, "He must have more than one of them, because he threw a dozen at the ground around Senzenen, but when we landed at the far end of the rink he still had one around his forehead. Too bad for Senzenen, he got another icy bath while that Azusa twit went off chasing after her precious 'Charlotte.'"
"Whoah," Ranma said, "You mean Mikado got himself wet again?"
"Yeah, but the weird part is how he dried himself off," Akane replied, "When he started spinning like a top and threw off water everywhere he got me and Ryoga wet and...ah...well...then the pervert tried to make another grab for me, so I knocked him through the roof like I do every day with Kuno."
"You actually managed to nail Senzenen?" Aido marveled.
"Hey, she may be a macho chick, and clumsy, but she's got a pretty mean right cross," Ranma attested with absolute conviction.
"And this is the girl that half your school wants to date?" Kensuke asked with a very bland expression.
"Speaking of your bandana-wielding boyfriend," Nabiki said, "Where is Hibiki anyway? I thought he'd come storming in here to pick another fight with Ranma-
kun..."
"He's not my boyfriend, Nabiki...and, er...well..." Akane winced, "It's kind of a long story...let's just say that he took off and leave it at that..."
"Huh, probably got lost again, the Baka," Ranma sniffed, "Man, I can't figure that guy out...like, why's he always mad at me? What did I ever do to him besides wait three days freezing my ass off in that lot behind his house?"
"Who knows, Saotome," Nabiki sighed, "There's just no figuring some people out."
"Ah...heh...yeah, I guess," Akane winced slightly, not wanting to elaborate on where she had last seen Ryoga taking off with the frilly-headed Azusa hot on his curly tail and no sense at all in which direction he was actually headed...
Ryoga kept absolutely still as he huddled like a tiny black ball under the bushes just outside of the sporting arena. That Azusa weirdo was still chasing after him, and if he so much as breathed funny he was certain that she would be on him again, and in his current shape he knew he could hardly put up much of a fight against her, let alone escape her clutches.
It was so very unfair! After he'd agreed to help Akane out in that skating match (mostly so he would have an excuse to pound on that Senzenen guy for daring to do what he had to Nabiki, and also get hoped-for clear shot at Ranma), but once again his cursed body had betrayed him during a crisis. Despite the help he had gotten from Akane he still wound up running for his life with that kawaii kleptomaniac trying desperately to turn him into a pet forever.
Life was never kind to Hibiki Ryoga, but at the very least he had hoped to find some justice for all that he had suffered over the past two years of searching for Saotome Ranma. Imagine at last finding the very devil himself upon whom you attributed all of your worldly problems, and to be unable to claim his revenge because of the recurrent presence of cold water was infuriating and depressing. Being turned into a small and helpless animal made his journeys fraught with unimaginable perils from even the most commonplace encounters, and all because of an accident that was not his fault, just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time when a girl chasing a panda ran into him in the middle of rural China...
Wait a second...a panda? Like the one sitting on the stone bench next to that fountain?
(Must be a coincidence), he thought as he huddled in his hiding place, looking out from between the bushes at the panda sitting on the bench calmly eating rice cakes from a tray, just as casual about the matter as if it were an everyday occurrence. Something about this caused Ryoga the Piglet to frown in concentration, wondering just why someone would be dressed up in a panda suit this time of year in the middle of a schoolyard as though there was nothing unusual about this.
No one would ever accuse Ryoga of being a rocket scientist, and in truth it was a strain for him to put two and two together, but there was something disturbingly familiar about that panda, and he knew for a fact that pandas were rare enough in the wild that meeting one in a civilized place was almost unheard of. The reason that this was particularly of interest to him was his recent encounter with that stunning redhead, who also seemed somehow familiar, a redhead dressed similarly to the outfit that he had seen Ranma wearing, and he believed he heard Nabiki use the name of Ranko, describing her as a cousin.
A cousin...one who looked familiar, who had red hair and a pigtail and had showed up rather conveniently when Ranma was absent. What was there about this that caused Ryoga to frown in unusual concentration, making use of mental muscles that had never seen much exercise before, and yet which seemed to be bearing fruit as he sensed a connection between this girl and someone he had already met. In fact, it was the panda who seemed to help him make the connection, but where...?
"Charlotte? Charlotte! Where are you? Little Azusa is so worried..."
Ryoga shivered and tried to act even smaller than he was, hoping the fruitcake would go away and not notice where he was or he was certain that getting away from her again would be more than slightly problematic!
"Charlotte...where have you gone? Please come back to little Azusa! She only wants to take you home and show you off to her other friends!"
Oh yeah, like Hibiki Ryoga was going to fall for a line like that! Ryoga felt the shadow of his doom passing over him and dared to look up in time to see Azusa moving past his position. If anything he felt his heart beating louder than ever and he was certain that she could hear it even as he stayed completely motionless and hoped like hell that he was too insignificant for even the kawaii idiot to notice!
"Charlotte...OH!" Azusa said, and all at once Ryoga was certain his heart would stop, but then she continued, "Oscar? It's you, Oscar! Azusa is so happy!"
Oscar? Ryoga opened his eyes again in shock and amazement. To his amazement he saw Azusa move away from him and head directly for the panda.
"Oscar, you'll come home with little Azusa and be her friend, yes?"
"Hmmmuuh?" murmured the panda, clearly as surprised and confused at the girl's behavior as was Ryoga, who almost felt like calling out a warning that it was dangerous for a human girl to approach such a large animal bare handed.
But to his amazement the panda wound up going off with the girl once she mentioned something about feeding and caring for him, so Ryoga heaved a sigh of profound relief and did not even mind the slight sense of deflation at realizing that he had been passed over for another animal, musing faintly of the fickleness of women...
Which brought him back to the subject of the girl named Ranko. There was something about her that puzzled Ryoga greatly, and he knew instinctively that he would have to find and confront her about that. He did not know what part she was to play in his destiny, but as sure as he would gain his vengeance against Ranma he intended to discover where he had met the girl before, and what was her real connection to the family of Tendo, especially to the sisters Akane and Nabiki...
The walk home back to the Tendo house was strangely subdued for both Ranma and Nabiki. Her father and older sister had insisted on leaving early with Akane, so they had only each other for company since Aido and Kensuke had gone home to their own place.
The silence had stretched long between them before at last Nabiki managed to say aloud, "Ranma-kun..."
"Uh...yeah?" Ranma asked cautiously, not wanting to disturb the quiet truce that had fallen between them since leaving the arena.
"What you said back there, threatening Senzenen..." she began.
"Oh...that?" he asked tentatively, "Forget about it."
"But..."
"Nabiki," Ranma said with more care than was usual for him, "You and me are partners, right? And partners stand up for each other, so you know I'd never let a creep like that do anything bad to you, right?"
"Partners," Nabiki said, "Right."
"And you stood up for me back there, so we're even," Ranma continued, "Not that I woulda let you go through with kissing the creep. I wasn't hurt that bad, and I'd have recovered on my own in another couple of minutes."
"I see," Nabiki eyed the man at her side with a coy expression, "So it didn't really matter to you who he was threatening to kiss, you just didn't want to see him do it with a girl for principle's sake?"
"Hey, I don't like creeps like him who think they can smooth-talk their way with a girl," Ranma replied, "You think I enjoyed it when he did it with me?"
"And of course you were good at preventing him from kissing you," Nabiki pointed out with mild amusement.
"Ah...well..." Ranma started to think it over.
"So you'd be just as successful in protecting my virtue," she continued, "Not that the sentiments aren't appreciated."
Ranma glowered then grumbled, "I take it back...I should have let him kiss you."
"What?" Nabiki reacted with a lifting of eyebrows.
"It would have served him right," Ranma replied, "You'd have charged him for it and probably took him for everything he was worth."
Nabiki actually thought it over before she said with casual ease, "You may be right about that...I could have taken him to court and maybe force his family to pay big bucks for assaulting my virtue and taking advantage of my innocence in front of my own iinazuke. I could have won concessions by rounding up the names of all the other girls he's done this to, and made his life a living hell, if only I'd thought about it first. Thanks for pointing this out, Ranma-kun, next time I'll know better."
"Hey!" Ranma reacted, "You mean you really would have kissed him?"
"Why Ranma-kun," Nabiki said with a bland expression, "You sound upset. I thought it didn't matter to you who he kissed, especially if it were me?"
"That ain't the point and you know it!" Ranma fumed, "You know I'd-I'd-aw! Forget about it! You are such a Mercenary..."
"I may be a mercenary, Ranma-kun," Nabiki said with a lifting of her chin, "But just the same...thank you for caring enough about me to stand up for my virtue. No one's ever done that before, regardless of your reasons."
"Huh?" Ranma blinked in surprise, his mental processes derailed as he caught the smile she turned on him as she said this.
"You really are something else, Saotome," Nabiki observed, "So proud and sure of yourself in a fight, but when it comes to anything else you turn into a little lost boy who can't even string two words together to form a coherent sentence. There's a lot of work to do if we're going to polish up your act..."
"What?" he blinked again, now totally confused by her mercurial nature.
"As your manager I have to put your interests above everything else," she informed him, "And if that means having to civilize you from the ground up so that you can sit in decent company without embarrassing yourself or acting like a total barbarian, then so be it. You can consider it my life's project from this point on to make you outshine a mere poser like Senzenen..."
"Uh...what are we talking about again?" Ranma asked, seeing her turn her crooked little smile his way as though reading him like a book, a fact that made him feel both nervous and...very funny inside. It was at moments such as this that he was reminded just how feminine she was, and how unfathomable and vexing, a real mystery beyond his powers to unravel.
"Don't worry your little head about it, Ranma-kun," Nabiki patted him on the shoulder, "Just leave everything to me, you know you can always trust your fate to Tendo Nabiki."
Something about the way she said this made Ranma's self-preservation instincts kick into high gear, and by rights he should have taken off running, but for some strange reason his legs refused to obey this pragmatic impulse. For reasons that totally escaped him he found himself trotting along at her side like a faithful hound at the side of his master, and yet somehow he also felt the urge to protect her, having come face-to-face with the vulnerable side of this confusing girl and her materialistic obsessions.
For good or ill they both were partners, and come what may they would stand together, even if he suspected that he was asking for more trouble than he ever knew existed which-curiously enough-left him feeling oddly...excited...
Continued.
Comments/Criticisms/Crestfallen Expressions: shadowmane
Ryoga explores the mystery of the redheaded pigtailed girl while Akane meets a new and deadly adversary, and Ranma finds himself drawn into the spiraling web of events as the training partner for both Akane and his reluctant iinazuke. But is there someone else stalking him from the shadows? And what will Nabiki herself do when she starts having rivals turn up with semi-valid claims upon her "business-partner," Ranma? Be with us next time for: "Gymnastics of the Heart," or, "The Curse of the Black Rose of Hokkaido!" Be there!
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