Time to start the Tact and Vanilla route, but before that gets into motion, Arnold and Ranpha's route begins halfway through chapter 4.

How To Impress Ranpha (Vanilla Route)

The supply situation was solved after our last battle and everyone began to feel much happier with what they got from the supplies. A few days had passed since I also joined the angel wing and I care for the girls equally...well that's not entirely true, there was one girl I was attracted to than the others.

Ranpha Franboise. A passionate and fiery girl who loved fortune-telling and martial arts, well that was what I learnt when I first met her. When I spoke to her for the first time, she looked at me a little funny and I thought that she would grow to dislike me. However when I joined the Elsior and become good friends with Milfie, Ranpha started to open up a bit more towards me and so did the others, although Vanilla was the quietest to speak to me at the time.

I was walking pact the lounge when I heard some singing going on. I walked in to see Milfie and Ranpha with microphones, looks like there was a karaoke going on.

"Okay everyone, that was Ranpha and Milfie!" Creta said. "Let's have a few minutes rest and then we'll have another song."

"Yay! Thank you everybody." Ranpha said happily.

"That was fun!" Milfie added. "What song shall we do next?"

"Hi you two." I greeted.

"Hi Arnold." Milfie replied. "Did you see us on stage?"

"I only saw the end part...so I heard a bit of your voices, you both sing good."

"Thanks...although I think my part was much better." Ranpha boasted.

Milfie didn't seem to agree. "Huh...but you were messing up the lyrics, you weren't even looking at the screen."

"Who cares about that? When you close your eyes, you can sing happily!" Ranpha looked at me. "Arnold, who do you think sang best?"

"I think I already said..." I replied before trying to find a way out of it. "...I know, why don't I have a go?"

Milfie gasped. "Arnold...really, you're a good singer?"

"Well I'll try to..."

"Well if you can do it, prove it." Ranpha encouraged.

"Alright then I will...hey Creta, sign me up for the next song, I'll take to the stage."

"Oooh yes." Creta replied. "I heard you sing a little bit, pick a song here and show off your voice."

I found one that suited my voice and I got myself ready to sing, thinking that if I'm going to start impressing Ranpha, I need to do it right...it was time to sing.

Give me your, give me your, give me your attention, baby
I gotta tell you a little something about yourself
You're wonderful, flawless, ooh, you're a sexy lady
But you walk around here like you wanna be someone else

(Oh whoa-oh-oh)
I know that you don't know it, but you're fine, so fine

(Oh whoa-oh-oh)
Oh girl, I'm gonna show you when you're mine, oh mine

Treasure, that is what you are
Honey, you're my golden star
You know you can make my wish come true
If you let me treasure you
If you let me treasure you
(Whoa-oh-oh-h-h-h)

After I was done, everyone was cheering for me, even Ranpha was staring in disbelief.

"Thank you ladies and gentleman, you've been a wonderful audience." I said as I got off stage and towards the girls.

"Wow!" Milfie exclaimed. "You sing amazingly! Right, Ranpha?"

"Uhh...y-yeah...I wasn't expecting that..." Ranpha added. "Say, Arnold, could you come with me to the warehouse?"

"Sure, what for?"

"Just a little help, nothing serious."

"Okay...we'll see you later, Milfie."

Milfie nodded. "Alright...Creta, mind if I go again?"

Ranpha and I left the lounge and down to the warehouse, I was curious why we were here.

"Here Arnold, help me out with this." Ranpha said.

"So what is this, are you still looking for food?" I asked randomly.

Ranpha gasped. "You're wrong, how rude!" She paused for a second. "Uh, I mean...I'm helping out on organizing with the transportation of the supplies."

"Transportation...I thought the maintenance crew would be taking care of that."

"Well, they're already busy with the other stuff, so there's things in here that need moving and I need your help with this."

"Alright then, I'll help you out here."

She smiled. "Thanks...we're going to cut the gravity soon so we can carry the big crates. Boots to work in zero gravity are over there."

"Zero gravity, isn't that dangerous and did you get permission to do this?" I put on the boots.

She sighed. "Please stop whining and put them on, I'm switching off the gravity generator."

The whole room began to feel very light and my body was starting to float around.

"Woah...I feel trippy, man! Somebody open the window and let out the great vibes...man..."

Ranpha shook her head. "You'll get used to it soon. Here, use this wire rope." She handed me one that was around a container.

"Aren't these wrapped around a container for a reason?"

"Right, so lift slowly..."

I grabbed on to a container and it was as light as me since we were in zero gravity in this room.

Suddenly a door opened. "Ah Arnold, what are you doing in here with Ranpha?" Milfie asked.

"Huh...Milfie! Wait be careful, it's zero gravity in here!" I exclaimed.

But it was too late, Milfie was already floating around. "Ahhh! My body won't stop!"

"Woah, you're going to crash into a container, watch out!"

"Dodging while in zero gravity is impossible!" Ranpha said.

*BONG*

"Owww!" Milfie moaned, sniffling. "I hurt my head..."

"Are you okay?" I asked, a little worried.

"Yes, I think so..."

"Hold on a minute, did you just hear something?" Ranpha asked.

Suddenly, something broke and came off. "The wire rope!" I exclaimed. "It's broke loose!"

"The containers all fell down!" Milfie said.

"That's impossible, the wire couldn't have snapped like that after you hit your head with it."

"Well, it's probably because of Milfie." Ranpha remarked. "In any event, it's a mystery, isn't it?"

"I'm so sorry!" Milfie exclaimed. "I'll go get someone to help!"

She was able to get out of the warehouse.

I sighed. "What a mess...I guess we have to grab all the crates in the air one by one."

"Now that they've fallen apart, we can't help it." Ranpha replied. "Look, let's just do it quickly."

I nodded as I picked one up. "So light this one..." Suddenly one from behind caught me. "Ow! That one hit me..." Then I realized I was being moves around by the impact. "Uh oh..."

"Huh?" Ranpha noticed I was being move towards her. "Hold on, don't come this way!"

"Damn! I changed directions because of that container...woah, I can't stop!"

"Please slow down!"

"Incoming!"

I close my eyes, bracing for impact. I was stopped by something, I opened up my eyes and...my lips were on Ranpha's in an upside down kiss. I was in shock, I was kissing the girl that I was attracted to the most, albeit under a weird issue. She was shocked as well before I pulled my lips away.

I already began to fear for my body's safety. "I'm so sorry that I couldn't stop, Ranpha. Please don't hurt me for that!"

I was readying for Ranpha to kick the crap out of me when the gravity in this room was put back to normal. Yet somehow...she wasn't, she didn't look angry at me...she was blushing and almost struggling to say a word.

"A-a-a-Arnold...why would I d-d-do that? It was an a-a-accident..."

Suddenly, Milfie came back. "Arnold, Ranpha. I've brought help!"

"Ah Milfie...thanks for that." I replied.

"Yes, it's okay now, we can grab all the boxes at once."

"Yeah, please do."

Milfie and some of the crew workers went around with helping out the containers.

"Arnold, one moment." Ranpha whispered to me.

"Sure...is it about earlier?" I whispered back as we put our ears close.

She was still blushing, "Yeah, fortunately, it was just the two of us here. If you speak a word of this to anybody...that was just an accident, okay? Nothing happened, understand?!"

I nodded. "Yeah, I got it, it'll be our secret. I definitely won't tell anybody."

She sighed happily. "Yeah, I knew you would say that...thank you. Although you don't have to be really quiet about it if it's just you and me around."

"You and me?"

She spoke up. "Anyways, we gotta stop floating around and help pick this stuff up."

"Woah! Not right in my ear-hole...sheesh!"

She blushed again. "S-sorry..."

I had gotten very close with the angel wing after a few battles had passed. We heard from Tact that he would be relieved as commander of the Elsior, but before that, we were all invited to the ball and I believed that this would be my chance to see if Ranpha would be interested.

As soon as we left the bridge however, it was the opposite. The five girls all offered to be my date since being the only male member of the group, it would be obvious that I would begin to develop feelings for at least one of them, so they gave me time to think about it.

I gave it some thought and made my way to the girls rooms, but I was stopped by Almo and Coco.

"There you are, Arnold." Coco said.

"We were looking for you." Almo added.

"Well, I don't see you two often outside the bridge." I replied. "What's this?"

"There was a buy one, get one free sale on all bouquets." Almo said. "So Coco and I bought two."

"We gave one to Tact so he can impress who he wants to choose for his date at the ball." Coco added. "This one is for you to give to your chosen date."

I nodded. "I see...well thank you so much for this. This may really help me."

"Good luck, Arnold." Coco said as she handed the bouquet to me.

"We believe in you." Almo added as they turned and left.

I walked to Ranpha's room and I was getting nervous, but I steeled myself up and pushed on the door button.

"Ranpha, it's Arnold. I have something to give you."

"Arnold...yeah it's fine, come in!"

I walked into her room and she was standing by the table.

"So what's up?" she asked. "Have you made your choice?"

"I have...but let me give you this first." I handed the bouquet of flowers to her. "These are for you."

Ranpha gasped and blushed. "F-for me?" She smelled them and smiled. "Oh wow...thank you so much!" She put them down on the table.

"And secondly, I have something important to say." I took her hand. "Ranpha, I choose you to be my date for the ball."

Ranpha smiled. "Really?"

"Well after giving you the flowers, was there any doubt?" I smirked.

She giggled. "Then I'm really happy to be your date."

"Yay!" I said in excitement. "Oh wait, I was meant to be calm about that."

"It's fine, you're gonna be dancing with a beautiful blonde bombshell like me." She sighed happily. "Now with that out of the way, I'll need to get clothes for the ball, we have to go shopping."

"Agreed, I'll be looking to get something trendy, can't go to a ball with how I look right now."

"Oooh, you're honest about your looks too? Well I can help you with that."

I shivered at the thought. "Well I would have to draw the line towards make-up, I'll just get my face cleaned, dress smartly and I'll be ready."

"Not bad, Arnold. I think we're gonna have a great time...we're in Fargo right now, let's go."

"I'm with you all the way."

We left her room, holding her hand as we left the Elsior and walked into the city of Fargo and towards the stores.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm." Ranpha hummed cheerfully as we went store by store for accessories. "I'll buy this...and that too."

"You're really going to town on Fargo." I replied as I was carrying a few bags. "There'll be nothing left."

"Ha ha ha! Next is the main event, the dress! Mint recommended a certain store to me."

"Speaking of which, aren't you just buying all this stuff because the bill is going to the military?"

"Oooh, what are you talking about? I have absolutely no idea."

I sighed. Well no one said dating Ranpha would be easy, but it makes a nice change compared to the quiet days I have.

We arrived at the store and Ranpha couldn't decide what to pick whilst I went over to the mens section and picked out an ideal trendy suit that suited me.

When I was done, Ranpha had just came out of the dressing room and she seemed to make a final choice.

"Alright, this is my final choice...I shall take this one." she said, making the purchase. "All right! That's everything ready for the ball."

Finally, I thought to myself, just how fast does she change her mind?

We soon left the store and were about to leave the shopping area when Ranpha spotted something on display.

"Oh look!" She exclaimed. "Those shoes look gorgeous!

"I agree, I think they would match well with you." I added.

"Hello customers." the store person said. "I'm afraid this pair is just for display for a sales promotion, regular customers can't buy these."

"Awww, what?" Ranpha moaned. "You're kidding me?"

I however thought of an idea. "Uh miss...Ranpha is the perfect woman for these shoes. Couldn't you please sell us them?"

The store owner wasn't convinced. "I already said they're for display only for a sales..."

I cut her off. "Yes, you said, but even so, shoes are the same as any other accessory for display. But true value only comes out when they're worn by a beautiful woman."

Ranpha blushed. "Geez, Arnold, you don't need to say that..."

"It's the truth, you're a good enough woman for these shoes."

"Arnold..."

The store owner finally gave in. "...I understand. If you're going to insist so much, I'll sell them for you for a price."

"Thank you." I replied. "I'll make the payment for it."

Ranpha was surprised. "Huh?! You're not going to charge them to the military?"

"Think of it as a present from me to you, will you accept?"

"Yeah...I do! I'm so happy now! Thank you, Arnold!"

I giggled as I made the purchase, had it gift wrapped and in a bag. Our shopping was over, so went back to the Elsior to rest for the ball.

It was the evening of the ball and I had arrived with the girls, although we were waiting for Tact who we heard had chosen Vanilla to be his date.

I was in my suit and I paid attention to Ranpha who was in her dress. But being the funny guy I was, I wanted to tease her a little bit.

"Well Arnold, how do I look?" she asked.

"Like a beautiful golden flower, bursting out with warmth like the suns rays." I replied confidently.

"Oooh, that's a good one." Forte commented. "Anyways, you're looking very sharp."

I looked at Ranpha. "Well it's cause I once heard that girls go crazy for a sharp dressed man."

"Ohhh I see and what else did you hear?" Ranpha asked.

"That you've got legs and you know how to use them."

She looked at me funny. "Would you like a smack in the mouth, mister?!"

"It was a joke!" I pleaded. "Besides, I meant that if some low slob tried to be your date, you would just kick them away and that would be a problem solved."

"Yeah, that's true...alright I'll let you off this time."

"Thanks...I won't say stuff like that in a place like this."

"Say Arnold, can we go to the top floor of the palace?"

"Sure...see you girls." I walked with Ranpha to the top floor.

The area was well sized and the windows and roof was one big window all around, we could see the area of Fargo city and the galaxy stars from here. However, I heard Ranpha beginning to feel a bit of pain and she took her shoes off that I bought for her.

"Ranpha...are you okay?" I asked.

"It's alright...owww." she replied.

"They look sore, were those shoes too small for you?"

I looked at her feet, they were sore indeed. "Ah...ow."

"Those shoes don't even fit at all now that I look at it, they're not even close to your size. Why didn't we notice that sooner when I bought them?"

"I...I don't know..."

"Here, I bought these with my suit." I took out a few tissues from my suit pocket and cleaned around her soles of her feet. "You'll have to keep your shoes off, but you should manage."

"Thanks..."

"Can you stand up?"

"Yeah, I can manage..." She began to sniff.

"Ranpha, what's the matter?"

"When I tried them on, they didn't fit. But I wanted to keep them, because you bought them for me. I wanted to wear them and dance with you!"

"I see..."

"When tonight came, I thought I'd get to dance with you, it would be so wonderful...but now, that magic is gone...the dream is over...it's not right."

This was the moment when I knew that Ranpha was the one for me and it was time for me to make a stand and become more than a close friend to her.

Background music: Galaxy Angel - Last Dance

I took her hands and smiled. "Ranpha...the magic's not gone. Because I am here for you."

She looked at me. "Huh?"

"Ranpha, I have liked you more than the others ever since we first met. I was once hesitant but ever since then I become more confident to talk to you and become good friends. Then we became close friends when I joined the angel wing and tonight, I'm here to say that you're the girl that I want."

She blushed. "Arnold...then, shall we dance together?"

"Yes...I can hear the slow music from downstairs, take my hand."

Ranpha's smile came back as we danced to the slow waltz music. It may been a little odd for Ranpha to dance without her shoes, but she didn't care about that anymore. She was happy to hear what I said and I was happy to hear her response.

It was the night before the final battle against Eonia and his fleet, I decided to take up exercising in the gym to wear myself down a little so I could sleep better. I walked from my room and down to the gym, but Ranpha was already there and she was in her gym outfit.

"That sound...evening, Ranpha." I said.

"Oh, evening, Arnold." she replied, smiling. "Don't see you down here at this time of the night."

"Yeah, I wanted to take up on doing some training here before the final battle so that my legs and hands will be ready for the attacks."

"Really, because I had that same idea and for some reason, I'm wide awake." She went back to her martial arts training.

"I suppose you're really motivated for tomorrow's big battle?"

"I guess so."

"Well, right now you seem invincible."

"I hope so...whew." She stopped doing her training.

"What's wrong?"

"If I don't move my body like this, then I think I'd start to get worried."

"But why?"

"This fight determines the fate of the Empire, right? Am I really going to be able to save so many people's futures...?"

"Ranpha..."

"What should I do, Arnold? How I am supposed to live to up to everybody to the Empire's expectations?"

"Everybody in the empire is too much for one person. Don't think on a scale any larger than you need to."

"What do you mean?"

"Instead, think about the people you know and the people you love. There's still quite a bit I don't know about so this may be a guess. You know and love your family, right?"

"Of course."

"You care about me and the Angel Wing, right?"

"Yeah, I do."

"And you also wanna do your best for our commander who has to focus at all times, right?"

"Yeah...I want those you mentioned to be happy and I want to protect their futures."

"Then that's how the world is, it's made of small groups of irreplaceable people. If you feel strongly enough to protect the people important to you. than you can protect them forever."

Ranpha smiled. "Yeah...somehow I really believe in that...my chest is relaxing better when I think about it like that."

"That's the spirit."

She blinked. "Wait...that's not it."

"There's something else?"

"Yeah...remember what you said when we danced at Fargo? You said to me that I was the girl that you want, but since then, I never got the chance to tell you about my feelings."

"Now that I think about it, you're right." I walked towards her.

She began to blush. "Arnold...I didn't show it at first when we first met because I didn't know much about you. But after each day that passed by, I got to know you more and I started thinking that I really liked you."

"So you had feelings for me too?"

"Yeah...but I still wasn't sure until you came to my room with those flowers. You were so willing to impress me and help me out with the shopping. At times I felt that I was pushing you a bit hard, but you stuck it out and you even bought those shoes for me."

I smiled. "I was doing whatever I could to make you happy."

"And I really appreciate it...the point is that you've become a very important person to me...and I want to fight for you."

"Fight for me?"

"Yeah...I want to fight for the sake of our happiness. That means you'll have to fight for my sake too...because you're the man that I want too. Do you promise?"

I gave it a thought for a few seconds and it was all I needed. I was going to stick with my decision that I made since the date at Fargo.

I smiled, walked over to Ranpha and put my arms around her waist. "Ranpha... I promise. I'll fight for our sake too and I'll help win this final battle, for you."

Background Music: Galaxy Angel - A Peaceful Time

She gasped. "Really?"

"I really do...I swear on my courage and honour...because...I love you."

She gasped before sniffling, but she was happy. "Arnold...I love you too!" She put her arms around my neck. "Then...seal our promise with a kiss."

"With a kiss?"

"If we share our power with a kiss, then we can win this fight because you're the most important person to me."

I smiled and looked into her beautiful light brown eyes. "I will...because you've become the most important person to me too."

We moved our heads close and locked our lips together for the kiss. Technically it was our second kiss since the first one happened back at the warehouse that we have kept secret ever since.

We were ready for the final battle as a couple, but I did wonder if Tact and Vanilla were ready as well and if they would become a couple...well, that's another story...

Yep, I couldn't resist to leave you readers hanging at the end, also did you like the ZZ Top references I put in there? ;)

Up next, the Moonlit Lovers part where Tact has to deal with a Vanilla fan-club issue, whilst Arnold and Ranpha...paint the town pink?