Chapter 10:

Much Ado About Shampoo

Night had come and gone several times, and tey each night was harder for one Akane Tendo. It had been several days since the Amazon known as Shampoo had made the promise of death, and as of yet, there had been no sign of any attack. It worried her, not knowing, waiting, she wanted the woman to make her move. Then there was the matter of the Cursed panties, she'd still been unable to remove them, and it was going on a week now. The panties had been relatively quiet, and inactive, though would from time to time cause trouble, mostly on her way to school where the battle royale continued and became worse each day.

Today had been no exception. As she arrived on campus, a wind blew her dress up revealing the panties, who grinned and inspired the ensuing battle. The sheer number of men had increased tenfold since she was cursed, and she had been getting less and less sleep due to Shampoo. If this kept up, she was certain someone would beat her within the next few days. She really had no time to think beyond that, as she side-stepped a charging football player, and kneed a basketball star. She had to duck as a hockey puck flew where her head had been, and took out a varsity soccer player. She then leapt over a small forming pile and spun, kicking the Hockey player and landing just under a left jab from a boxer. She soon took him out by breaking his jaw as she stood up. Then came Kuno, who had arrived just in time to get an unguarded shot at the back of Akane's head, or would have if Ranma hadn't shot past him, scooped Akane up, and narrowly avoided letting a much more dangerous barrage of daggers catch her from behind.

Akane was completely caught off guard as she heard the sound of metal hitting concrete where she had been standing, and saw a couple blades pinning Kuno to theground. She then looked at Ranma and blushed before she caught a glimmer of something shiney heading right for them. "Look out Ranma!"

Ranma let go of Akane and balled up as several shuriken flew around him, narrowly missing him, and hitting perfectly where Akane would have been. He landed, spun and turned looking for the source. He had seen just in time to catch another bladed barrage heading towards Akane and dove to push her out of the way. The wind gust that blew Akane's dress up was timed so perfectly it appeared to have been a scene shot in the movies, as Ranma's hand reached her backside, and as he pushed to knock her out of the way, his grip caught the Cursed Cat Panties. As he fell forward, the panties slipped off without so much as any effort, and Akane tripped within them falling flat on her face. The shiney objects littered the concrete behind Ranma, having once again missed thier mark.

Akane stood up, then blushed heavily as she felt the sudden draft under her skirt, then turned and glared at Ranma who was holding a pair of panties. It would dawn on her later that she was finally freed, but for the time being that thought wasn't on her mind "Ranma you pervert!!!" A mallet had somehow appeared in her hand and embedded itself and Ranma's head into the sidewalk.

The unseen assassin had fled however, having run out of ammo

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"Really, I mean it Ranma, I'm sorry." Akane sighed a bit as the pair walked home after class. She'd spent most of the day trying to apologize for the beating earlier, afterall, he'd saved her life and removed a curse.

"I said don't worry about it." He took a deep breath as the turned a corner, then froze. "Sh-Shampoo?!?"

"What about... Sh-Shampoo?" Akane had followed him around the corner then wished she hadn't. She was now standing slightly behind Ranma, facing off with an almost certain death, at least Ranma was there. She took a deep breath, then pushed past Ranma and got into Shampoo's face and mumbled slightly before she started yelling. "I'm sick of this Shampoo, when are you going to fight me. Look, I challenge you, right now, just, let's get this over with already."

Shampoo giggled and looked at Akane before turning her back and walking away. "Shampoo fight you, if husband stay here."

"I won't let you kill Akane Shampoo." Ranma tried to push past Akane who had raised her arm and glared at him.

"Fine, I accept. Stay here Ranma, I can take care of myself."

"Then follow Shampoo, and we fight." Shampoo started walking off, Akane following, and Ranma, against his will and better judgement, stayed behind.

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Ranma sighed, he really didn't like leaving Akane to herself, especially not with Shampoo as her opponent. It was highly unsettling, and Ranma was worried. He decided, staying still wasn't an option, if he did nothing, Akane would end up dead, and he couldn't bare that thought. As he made his decision, he heard Akane's scream off in the distance. "Dammit! I'm too late. Akane!" He took off towards the scream.

He arrived, too late to catch Shampoo, but the scene wasn't much different then he'd expected, just less blood then he had thought. Was Shampoo that good, could she kill without leaving a visible wound? No, Ranma was sure of it, He'd fought Shampoo, she was good, but not that powerful.

Ranma rushed to Akane's side, and caught her just as she came to, that was a relief. But she wondered, what had Shampoo done? She'd made the promise to hunt down and kill Akane, but she had left with Akane still alive. It was confusing, and again, Ranma didn't like it. "Are you okay Akane?"

The dark haired girl slowly sat up, looked at Ranma, then grabbed her head. "Yeah, I, I'm fine, just a little dizzy."

"I was so worried Akane, I thought Shampoo was going to kill you. What happened?"

"I..." Akane paused a bit as she grabbed her head again, something felt different, almost refreshing. That was odd, she didn't remember having washed her hair that morning, but for some reason, it felt as if she'd just come from the salon. "I don't know? I remember facing off against Shampoo, she was fast, really fast, after that, I remember nothing until you got here." She looked at Ranma for a moment, then blinked and winced in pain before grabbing her head again. "Wait, who are you?"

"Wait, what? I'm Ranma, you know, Kasumi's fiance?"

"Kasumi's getting married?"

"Ok Akane, this isn't funny." Ranma stood up and looked at the girl for a moment as she stood herself, then brushed off her uniform.

"Really, I don't remember you, I don't recall us having ever met before." She shook her head slightly, her head was still fuzzy, and it felt worse every time she looked at Ranma. She couldn't place it, but there was something there, something she couldn't explain.

"I live at your house, I'm engaged to your sister!"

"You are? I wasn't aware either of them had been dating."

Ranma sighed heavily, then grabbed Akane's hand and started dragging her towards the city. "Come on Akane, we're going to see Dr. Tofu, if anyone can help us he can."

"You know Dr. Tofu?" Akane blushed brightly, with her missing memories of Ranma, she'd have completely forgotten their talk several days earlier. Somehow, she felt it odd that she felt this strongly towards Tofu, afterall, she had recalled a few days earlier feeling relieved that she was over him. Somehow, it almost felt wrong that she felt a fancy towards him.

"Yeah, we had a talk with him a couple weeks ago. You introduced me to him. You really don't remember?" Ranma sighed and reached into his pocket. "Do you at least remember..." Ranma started to panic as he reached around in his pocket. Something was missing, something incredibly important, in fact, something more precious to him then his own life. Chise-chan wasn't there. Ranma started to shake slightly as terror crept over his face. Had he dropped her somewhere? Ranma closed his eyes and shook his head, Akane was more important right now, he'd have to retrace his steps later, or hold onto the hope that he had simply forgotten her at home. Actually, that seemed the most unlikely, he cherished the doll. Forget her? Ranma pushed that thought completely from his mind, that was impossible.

"Do I remember what?" Akane looked at him funny for a moment while they had paused. She saw him reach into a pocket as he dragged her towards Tofu's place, and then he suddenly stopped, paniced. "You're making no sense."

"Forget it Akane, We have to see Dr. Tofu." Ranma shuddered fearing what had happened to Chise, but continued to drag Akane towards the clinic.

Author's note:

Pardon the appearence of the double update if you have this story on Alerts. I, in my infinite ineptitude had origionally written this chapter with a huge, glaring continuity error. After going back and rereading a little, I found that a plot point I was about to introduce had already been introduced, so I rewrote a small portion of this chapter to compensate. Hopefully I caught it before too many of you did. Anyways, leave comments, I love seeing how all you wonderful people enjoy my work.