Chapter Nine
After the weekend Ranma and Akane went to school glad that there was no hentai horde to deal with. This morning even Kuno was taking the day off, at least for now. Things seemed to be fine, almost too fine.
When homeroom started, they were treated to something very expected.
"Class, we have a new student joining us today. This one I'm warned we need to be a bit patient with but still be courteous to them like any other." The homeroom teacher told them all.
Everyone was confused since they saw no unfamiliar face. Akane was understandably the most confused. 'New student? This didn't happen until Ukyo showed up. Is she here early?'
The door to the class opened and in walked a girl dress in the Furinkan uniform. But it wasn't Ukyo.
"Nihao everyone. My name Shampoo."
No one was more surprised than Ranma and Akane. There she was, the Chinese Amazon in human form dressed just like Akane, saying she'd be in their class now.
'What the heck? Shampoo never even considered enrolling here in the vision. Why is she doing it here?' Akane asked herself, knowing she would have to ask the Amazon this very thing soon.
"I not very good speaking Japanese but I learning. Friends Ranma and Akane will help me if you or I confused."
"Oh you already know Saotome?" The teacher politely asked.
Shampoo nodded. "Met in China in summer."
"Take the seat next to Saotome for now. I suspect this will make things easier for us all."
Shampoo nodded and took her seat. "Nihao Airen." She whispered to him as she did so. He just nodded in response.
Lunchtime came and Akane decided to take the opportunity. "Hey Shampoo, why are you coming to school?"
"You not already know?"
Akane shook her head. "No, you never did this in the dream."
"Great-grandmother say it help me get better in language and closer to Airen. Shampoo not get to live with him like you after all. No have that advantage so need this to stay near him."
Akane smiled amused. "Trust me Shampoo, you have a good advantage over me."
"Like what?"
"You're a much, much better cook. I'm... this is hard to admit, but my cooking is terrible. Until I get better, I don't even want to try and give Ranma anything I make." The young Tendo then closed her eyes momentarily. 'That behavior is one of the ones I most want to avoid repeating.'
"How bad are you?" Shampoo curiously asked.
"Bad enough that in my vision Ranma feared my food almost as much as he feared cats. Your food he never turned down, even though I thought it was drugged most of the time."
"I no drug food."
"You did once." Akane claimed. "One time you used some sort of hypnotic mushroom to make Ranma hug you. Problem was he hugged anyone, not just you. Since then in my dream I was suspicious of anything edible you offered."
"I no do that this time. I no want control Airen. Like it more he control me."
Akane smirked with a light laugh. "Never thought I'd hear an Amazon say they liked being controlled by a man."
"Don't tell Grandmother. She not approve. But Shampoo like idea of man strong enough to dominate self. Sex be so good then."
Akane blushed at that. Despite the maturity her dream had given her and her admitted interest in Ranma, the idea of sexual activity still made her a bit bashful. In fact, her offer for Ranma to touch her breasts was mostly a whim and a steeping stone to getting over her shyness. While she was now bolder than before in sexual terms, she was still nervous on a lot of things and wanted to take things slowly but surely.
Akane decided to change the subject. "Want to eat lunch with me and my friends?"
"Sure."
Ranma was already eating with Hiroshi and Daisuke so Akane chose not to bother him. She led the Chinese girl to where Yuka and Sayuri were waiting, hoping for some girl talk. "Hi guys. You remember Shampoo right?"
"Hard to forget someone who stands out so much." Yuka replied.
"What you mean?" Shampoo asked.
"You're Chinese and have lavender hair. You don't exactly blend in with the crowd." Yuka clarified.
"Not Shampoo fault she no Japanese." She defended as she sat down.
"Yuka, be nice." Akane chided.
Sayuri decided to aim the conversation in a better direction. "So what brings you here?"
"Shampoo get married soon."
"What?" Yuka and Sayuri asked. "You too?" Shampoo nodded. "To who?"
"Ranma." Shampoo plainly answered.
The two girls temporarily lost the ability to speak after that. Their eyes just darted between their old friend and this new girl, who apparently were engaged to the same man.
Akane knew how was the best time to avoid making things worse. "Guys, there's something you must understand. Ranma's father isn't exactly a scrupulous man, even though my father likes him. Ranma's father actually got him engaged to a third girl too that will come here in a month or too. None of this is Ranma's fault."
"Wait, you mean you're still interested in him knowing this?" Yuka asked.
Akane nodded. "Why not? I said it's not Ranma's fault his father arranged a second engagement for him or took him to China. Ranma can't control his father anymore than you can control yours so don't act like he's just playing us."
"But if he doesn't choose between you two then he is playing you." Sayuri noted.
Shampoo was about to disagree to that, but decided to not speak for a moment. 'I may just make things worse for Akane and her friends if I told them the truth.'
Akane luckily answered for Shampoo in a more appropriate way. "Guys, what are we supposed to do? Tell Ranma to pick which one of us to marry and completely ignore the other girls? When he barely knows either of us well enough to decide that? He can't make that decision just yet, and neither can we. That's like going on a first date with someone and expecting them to be willing to commit to you."
"He still shouldn't accept this and neither should you." Yuka declared.
Akane frowned. "And what are we supposed to do? Tell me Yuka. Are we supposed to go up to a boy we've barely known for a month and demand he decide which one of us he wants to spend the rest of his life with? How is that in anyway helpful?"
"Do you even have a plan for how to handle this Akane?" Sayuri asked.
Akane nodded. "Yes, me and Ranma and Shampoo already discussed it. For the time being, we're just going to see how a relationship with Ranma would work, all the while no girl has a stronger claim to him than one of the others so we don't get into a competition over it. After a while, we should know if something long-term is something we want and Ranma will better know which girl he wants in his life and what he wants them as."
Shampoo smiled a bit, knowing Akane was accurately describing their arrangement without admitting the long-term goal was polygamy.
"So basically it will be an open relationship until he can make up his mind." Sayuri summarized.
Akane shrugged. "Basically, yes. If you have a better idea please tell me."
"Actually I just have one question." Sayuri told her friend. "Why are you still willing to give Ranma a chance after knowing all this? I'm not saying you shouldn't, but given your history I'd expect you to instead be using this as a way to avoid being forced with a boy."
"Ditto." Yuka agreed.
Akane sighed. "Because Ranma isn't like Kuno or the other boys here. If he was I'd have to put a padlock on my bedroom door, but he's been respecting my privacy and space. He's not a pervert. If anything, he's not perverted enough to even be considered normal."
"Shampoo hope change that." The Amazon said.
"Wait, you want him to become more perverted?" Yuka asked.
"Shampoo want Airen not afraid show interest. Is it wrong want boy find you sexy?"
Neither girl could deny that.
"Guys that's enough. It's not like she's carrying around condoms or anything." Akane stated.
Shampoo blushed. "Actually..."
Akane was wide-eyed. "Wait, you mean...?"
Shampoo shook her head. "No with me, but have them in room. Better have and no need than need and no have. For when Airen interested. Got in his size too."
"Wait, how do you know his size?" Akane asked, starting to blush a bit.
Shampoo smirked and leaned closer to her. "Same way you know. Saw it."
Akane's face was as red as her name and that prompted her friends to speak up. "What? Akane don't tell us that you... you actually...?"
"I walked in on him once. It was pretty hard not to see." Akane defended.
"Bet it pretty hard too." Shampoo joked, enjoying the humor of the situation.
"Could we please not talk about a boy's junk while I'm trying to eat?" Yuka asked.
Shampoo nodded. "Okay." She then looked back at Akane who was taking a bite of an onigiri. "So Akane, you show Airen boobs yet?"
Akane immediately coughed up her chewed up rice ball, inadvertently spitting it on Yuka. She had to catch her breath and clear her throat before responding. "What?"
"You show off chest yet?" Shampoo asked, trying to sound like it was normal conversation but her expression showed she was still toying with the Japanese girl.
"You shouldn't ask a girl that."
Shampoo looked rather pleased. "I not hear no."
Akane sighed. 'I shouldn't be surprised. She was willing to strip for Ranma in my dream so she's not as sexually insecure as I am.' Looking at her friends she saw they were eager to hear an answer but fearful of what she might say. "Alright, I admit it. He managed to see me too." 'No way I'm admitting to them that I wanted him to see me naked this time I saw him in the furo.'
"He what?" Yuka and Sayuri asked.
Akane gave them a firm look. "Settle down, it just happened, it wasn't something he planned. Besides, all he did was see, he didn't even try to touch me and believe me, if he wanted to force himself on me he could."
"And you still want to date him?" Sayuri asked, and Akane nodded. "May I ask why?"
"It's either him or Kuno."
"Good point." Sayuri quickly said.
After school ended Akane, Ranma, and Shampoo walked off together.
"Want come to Fox Cafe?" Shampoo asked.
"I'm not hungry, but I'm sure Ranma still is." Akane replied.
The pigtailed young man shrugged. "I wouldn't turn down something simple."
"You two go on without me. There's something I wanted to check out first." Akane told them both. Before they left, she had one thing to add. "Shampoo, don't bring Ranma up to your room."
"No promise." Shampoo replied before she disappeared with Ranma.
The youngest Tendo was momentarily worried about what might happen between her fiancee and his Chinese bride-to-be. 'Don't worry, he's not going to jump into anything so quickly. He's probably as uncertain about intimacy as I am. Hopefully, that can change.'
In no time, Akane reached her destination, Tofu's office. She knocked and he answered. "Hi Akane, you hurt somewhere?"
She shook her head. "No. Actually Dr. Tofu, I wanted to ask you something."
"What's that?"
"I... this is hard to say but... I think Ranma and maybe myself could benefit from a small bit of counselling in a specific area." She bashfully admitted, adding the part about herself by sheer Freudian slip. "Do you know anyone that could help us in that?"
"That depends on the reason the two of you need help. Is it for marital advice, anger issues, or something more akin to intimacy issues?" Tofu asked.
Akane blushed at being put on the spot. 'This is so embarrassing, but Ranma needs it... and I guess maybe I do too.' "Umm... closer to the last one."
"It's a good thing you're seeking advice. Since you're both teens and your families are expecting the two of you to get married, it would be very unusual for the two of you to not consider the possibility of being intimate someday. Whether or not you save it for marriage is your business, but I do recommend you at least use birth control if you can't wait that long."
"Do you... know anyone we can talk to about this?" Akane asked again.
"I could help you a bit myself. I know it must be hard talking about this sort of thing to someone you're familiar with, but admitting such personal things to a complete stranger might not be much better either. Which would you prefer?"
Akane thought it over for a moment and made up your mind. "Can you? I never really imagined this was something you were trained to do."
"Not specifically, but since I do work with teens a lot I figured it was a good thing to brush up on. Now why don't we sit down since I'm not busy right now?"
Akane followed him to one of the private rooms in the clinic. There might not have been anyone else there, but the measure of privacy helped make her feel better given the situation.
"Why don't we start by you asking what's most on your mind?" Tofu asked when he sat down, seated across from Akane.
Akane struggled for a moment to properly express her concern in words. "Well, lately I've been having certain... urges towards Ranma that aren't like me at all."
"First Akane, I want you to know that urges are natural." Tofu interjected. "I know it must feel weird to have urges since as a girl you are taught your whole entire, directly and indirectly, that you're not supposed to want sex until you're married. However, you should never forget you are also a teenager with all the hormones teenagers get. Everyone gets these urges on occasion and they are perfectly natural. Even your sisters get them once in a while."
'Nabiki I could see that as true, but most of the time I doubt Kasumi could be horny even if her life depended on it.' Akane thought.
"What I'm trying to say is that these urges you have are nothing to be afraid of. You're not the only girl to be tempted to do something with a boy, and you don't need a marriage license to have permission for that sort of thing. You should save it for when you're ready, when you're in love, instead of just trying to get an urge out of your system. Does that help you any?"
Akane nodded, actually feeling a bit more reassured. "Yes Doc. But it's still strange to understand."
"Let's try this another way. How do you feel when you imagine Ranma kissing you?" Tofu asked.
Akane lightly smiled at the mental image, even though the incident with the cat fist did come to mind as well. "Hopeful."
"Now how do you feel when you imagine him making out with you or using his tongue in a kiss?" Tofu added.
Akane needed a moment to find the right words and squash a brief flare of arousal. "Curious, and in a strange way excited."
"That's normal for a teenage girl. Nothing to be afraid of." The doctor reassured her.
"What about when he wants more?" Akane asked.
"Akane, what exactly are you afraid of? Do you think he won't take no for an answer?"
Akane shook her head. "No not at all. I know... I have faith Ranma wouldn't force himself on me like that."
"Then why be afraid?" Tofu asked again. "If you're certain he's going to respect your wishes then why are you so nervous?"
"I'm not nervous. I'm just..." Akane denied, but lost track of her own comment. "I... I don't know what to think of myself. Before now, I never wanted a boy to be interested in me, much less wanted myself to return the interest. Now, I want to do things that I thought only perverts wanted to. Is it normal to want that for someone you care for, or am I becoming a pervert?"
'Ah, so she's afraid of becoming the very thing she scorns.' Tofu told himself, thinking he reached the heart of Akane's discomfort. "Akane, like I already told you, everyone is a bit perverted. Some are more open about it and some are more repressed about it, but no one is completely without a libido. Not even women. Girls can get horny too and there's nothing wrong with wanting this sort of thing. These urges don't mean you're going to transform into a nymphomaniac if you don't keep them locked away and avoided at all costs."
"So how do I handle them?" Akane asked. 'In my dream I handled them by beating the crap out of Ranma to keep myself from giving in. I don't want to do that but I don't know what I can do before I'm ready to act on them.'
"There are a few ways. The most popular one is probably having a hobby. Keeps your hands busy and allows you to channel your frustration into something more constructive. No I don't mean breaking bricks with your bare hands Akane, that's just a poor excuse for anger management and will damage your hands someday. For you I'd recommend learning more about the non-aggressive aspects of martial arts."
Akane nodded. 'I do need to learn more. Luckily my dream made that easier since I've got a better understanding of how Ranma's future techniques work and are learned. Imagine me using the Amaguriken and Hiryu Shoten Ha, heck maybe even the Bakusai Tenketsu. Wait, maybe not that one. Don't think I want boulders thrown at me.'
"Thank you Dr. Tofu, I feel better now." She said.
"Glad to help. The only thing I want to add is you're not on a timeline or anything like that so you shouldn't feel like you're supposed to be doing something at a certain point. If you do anything, it should be because it feels right, not because you feel obligated to. If Ranma's the right guy for you, he'll understand. For all you know, he's probably confused on a few things too."
'I can see that as true.' The youngest Tendo thought. "Do you think you could give him some advice too?"
"I can try, but he'll have to come here."
Akane nodded and stood up. "Thanks for everything Dr. Tofu. You've been a great help. One last question, how do I tell Ranma you can help him on this?"
"Why not just be honest?" He asked her.
Akane blanched. "You expect to admit to a boy that I had these sort of questions?"
"What's the worst he can do?" Tofu asked, using the exact same tone as before.
Only one answer came to her mind. 'Nothing I couldn't make him stop doing.'
"Maybe you're right and I am just worrying about nothing. But having a group of horny teenagers trying to ambush you each morning does tend to leave an imprint on you. I guess I just need to learn how to accept these urges my own way."
Tofu nodded. "I also offer birth control options and pregnancy tests if you ever need them in the near future."
"Hopefully not too near." Akane replied waving off his offer. 'But hopefully not too far off either.'
As Akane headed home, someone else she was familiar with was headed her way too from a great distance. But this someone wasn't looking for her.
"Ranma... I will make you see hell. Once I find you, you're a goner."