Another Rainy Day in Nerima

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any related characters in any way, shape or form.

Author's Notes: now, normally this chapter would have been decided by vote. However, for various reasons, Gideon020 and I have decided to throw the order out of whack for this chapter and the next two after it. Please continue to vote; as that will determine what oneshots we begin tackling after these three chapters are done. I'd like to let you all know, however, that I'll be on Christmas vacation from the 19th of December to the 5th of January, so no further posts will be made by me during that time.

Chapter 8: Contracts Bought-Out

Ranma-Prime looked up from the mirror's depths, rolling his shoulders and stretching to work out some of the kinks before then returning his attention to it. The previous timeline was proof indeed that the smallest change could cause a completely different outcome, but he had to wonder; where there any timelines where such a change not only sent him spiraling away from Akane, but also into the arms of a completely different girl than the one who had been trying to get closer to him? Quite evidently responding to his curiosity, the Eye began to display the image of Ranma sitting on the floor of Nabiki Tendo's bedroom; now, this was a scene that struck a nerve with Ranma. He remembered all too well his humiliating attempt to get revenge on Nabiki for playing him like a puppet. Still, it did make a twisted kind of sense- in fact, if he had to be honest with himself, the duration of Nabiki's stint as his official Tendo fiancée was perhaps the very best opportunity any of his other fiancées could have had to try and woo him away.

After all, Nabiki had no interest in him- and he had truly begun to hate her in return after discovering how she had been using him here. If things hadn't gone according to her twisted gambit, Akane wouldn't have taken him back either, so that left him, to all practical purposes, open quarry for any girl willing to target. Come to think of it, why was it that neither Shampoo nor Ukyo had come after him during that time period? Eh, they must have been busy with the restaurants or something. Pushing that distraction aside, Ranma-Prime concentrated on delving into this latest timeline.

Nabiki watched Ranma as he left her room, never moving from her spot on her bed until he had walked out of the door, commenting in an aside to herself on how this wasn't part of the plan. Normally, she would have gotten up and gone to Akane to try and arrange things so that she'd take Ranma back- it annoyed her that she wouldn't be paid for this, but better that than to be stuck with the big lummox herself! However, a nagging voice in the back of her head demanded that she stop and think for a moment, something that she finally acquiesced to doing.

Now, she knew that the odds that Ranma had somehow fallen in love with her were only slightly above the odds that Happosai was, for all his lechery, a three-hundred year old virgin who wouldn't know what to do with a girl who was willing to go all the way with him- after all, with all that she had done to Ranma so far, there was no way he could possibly feel anything romantic for her. Unless he was one of those masochistic deviants... but then, if he was, he wouldn't complain about Akane hitting him, now would he? So, he clearly had something planned- and, though Nabiki knew all about the saying regarding curiosity, she was still curious about what possible reason Ranma could have to ask her on a date. Curiosity overwhelming her, she decided to go along with it. After all, it wasn't like Ranma had the brains to come up with a real plan, now was it?

About an hour or so later, and she had proof that, indeed, Ranma was far too stupid to come up with anything remotely resembling a plan. He had met her at the agreed place in fairly nice clothes, and carrying a bouquet of red roses. For one terrifying moment, Nabiki had wondered if Ranma really had fallen in love with her, then she noticed the tension in his body language, a mixture of aggression and spiteful anticipation. That had given her the vital clue needed to realize just what was going on; Ranma intended to make her think that he had fallen in love with her, and through that gain revenge. Just how that was supposed to work escaped her, but if Ranma thought he was going to get away with trying to pull such a trick on her, he had another thing coming!

"Ranma, I'm hungry; let's go in there and grab something to eat." She commented airily. Ranma looked up and fought to keep himself from starting in alarm when he realized Nabiki had indicated Ucchan's. He promptly tried to change her mind, but Nabiki refused to be swayed and dragged him inside, secretly looking forward to the painful vengeance Ukyo would exact upon discovering Ranma had asked Nabiki on an actual date.

Meanwhile, a lifetime and a half away, Ranma-Prime would have given a considerable sum to have Nabiki's throat in his hands right about now.

"Welcome to Ucchan's, how may I take your order?" Ukyo turned and blinked at seeing not Nabiki, but a smartly dressed Ranma behind Nabiki with a bouquet of flowers. Ukyo immediately destroyed the surge of jealous anger at seeing Ranma bringing a date to her restaurant as she told herself that he was with Nabiki, so that meant that the mercenary was up to something.

Nabiki for her part simply said to Ranma, "Why don't you pick out a seat while I go order for us okay?" Ranma simply nodded with a neutral expression as he walked towards a table and sat down. Meanwhile, Nabiki sauntered over to the counter so she could unload this headache onto someone who wanted it.

Ukyo busied herself cleaning the grill as Nabiki leaned on the counter, slightly thankful that business was slow today, "If you're looking for a free meal just because you're on a date with Ranchan, then no can do, I gotta pay my bills with money too you know." Nabiki smiled.

"How would you like some help with those bills? I've got a once in a lifetime offer right here for you." Ukyo scoffed but Nabiki continued, "You and I both can see that this little 'date' I'm on is a farce, but frankly I've found that being his..." Nabiki flicked a thumb to indicate Ranma, who was currently staring out of the window with a plainly bored expression on his face, "...fiancée is way to much of a hassle for me. So I've decided to see if you're interested. Hell, I'll even make sure he's in your price range."

Ukyo snorted at the light barb before her eyes began to narrow thoughtfully, "What sort of deal are you offering? You renting him out to me or just plain selling him to me as a once off so you never have to worry about being caught in the crossfire."

Nabiki's smile turned into a serious grimace, "Once off sale. No way am I going to even think about some kind of Rent-A-Ranma service, not with how you lunatics act around him."

Ukyo reminded herself that she was working, and that it was bad for business to take a chopstick and slam it through the hand of the now-smirking bitch in front of her. Plus it would make her look bad in front of Ranma, so she settled for her best neutral expression and asking, "How much?"

Nabiki smiled; finally something was going right for her, but now was not the time to be hasty. "Not so fast. I want an assurance that you won't use this to get one over me."

Ukyo snorted internally; it figured that Nabiki would want some way to cover her money-grubbing ass, but nodded all the same, "Look, all I want is Ranma and frankly I'm starting to wonder why you' re stalling so much. Just tell me how much you want before I decide I'm not interested. And trust me, if you tried this on Shampoo or Kodachi, they'll do worse things to you than what I'm capable of."

Nabiki openly scoffed, "Like what?"

Ukyo simply pulled out an old sharpening block and, before Nabiki could say anything, grabbed a chopstick and slammed it into the stone. "How much Nabiki? Just tell me, I'll pay and you can go back to your life without having to worry about not being able to look at chopsticks the same way for the rest of your life."

Nabiki smiled a little weakly, "Well, when you put it that way."

Though he knew he really shouldn't, Ranma-Prime couldn't resist smiling at that exchange. It was nice to see some of the mud splatter Nabiki for once... in fact, when he really thought about it, he couldn't think of one situation that she hadn't provoked or worsened from which she hadn't escaped scot-free. Usually, if anyone caught the slack, it was him. Come to think of it, that was probably why he had never been attracted to Nabiki; even though Shampoo and even Ukyo had also done nasty stuff to him- at least they did nice things as well. Whereas Nabiki... once bitten, twice shy and all that.

Ranma-Prime shook his head; boy, he was really getting distracted these days. Refocusing his mind on the mirror, he watched Ranma and Nabiki's "date" unfurl. Surprisingly, though understandably when he really thought about it, Ukyo made no interference towards Ranma while he was in her shop- she simply served him and Nabiki both and waited for Nabiki to finally grow tired of sitting around and leave, the bemused Ranma following in her wake, quite clearly confused as to why his "brilliant" plan wasn't working as he intended.

After they left, Ukyo clearly had to restrain herself from following, instead resuming serving her other customers with, admittedly, a distracted mien. Finally, the work day ended and Ukyo ceased to restrain herself, practically flying from the shop in the direction of the Tendo Dojo, her purpose quite evident even without the insight provided by the mirror. She had waited patiently for Ranma to return home, so as to avoid arousing any suspicion in him, but now was the time to cease the act and strike. Ranma was hers now, and hers alone- and she would be damned if she was going to let him spend another night under the Tendos' roof if she had any say in the matter.

Ukyo screeched to a halt just outside of the Tendo Dojo, taking a few moments to calm herself down; this was going to be a delicate operation, and she needed to be fully in control, for her sake and for Ranma's. After taking several deep breaths, she calmly walked in through the gates and knocked politely on the front door. After a few moments, Kasumi greeted her.

"Oh, hello Ukyo. Did you want to talk to Ranma?" The eldest Tendo girl asked politely.

"Actually, I was looking to talk to your father, and to Genma Saotome as well. Are they in?" Ukyo replied.

"Why, yes, they're in the living room; would you like to come in?"

Ukyo nodded politely and, pausing only to take her shoes off at the door, followed Kasumi inside. There, she found Soun and Genma seated at their usual position on the small porch that overlooked the inner garden, including its plum tree and its koi pond. They looked up at her as she entered the room.

"Hello, Ukyo, what may we do for you?" Soun Tendo asked in a brusque tone of voice, keeping his words civil to lessen the insult.

Ukyo didn't allow Soun to bother her; she knew full well that the Tendo patriarch didn't like her, primarily due to the threat she posed to his precious Akane's betrothal, and Ukyo could honestly say that she didn't like him either. Still, after this, she hopefully shouldn't need to have anything to do with the pitiful excuse for a human being again after this.

"I'm here to pick up something that belongs to me." Ukyo said. After a few moments to let her words sink in, she continued, "My fiancé."

"…If this is a joke, it's not particularly funny. Not funny at all." Soun finally replied.

Ukyo gave him a sinister smile. "This is no joke, Mr. Tendo. I have my reputation to think of; what do you think people will say about my allowing my fiancé to live under some strange woman's roof?"

"Strange woman!?" Soun spluttered angrily. "How dare you insult my little girl! Akane is Ranma's only true fiancée!"

"Oh, really? If I recall correctly, Akane gave up the engagement to Ranma- Nabiki is the Tendo girl arranged to marry Ranma now, right?" Ukyo asked, though the question was more hypothetic than genuine and someone more alert than Soun would have realized her air was that of a predator about to make a kill. When he reluctantly nodded, Ukyo grinned viciously. "Or rather, Nabiki was the Tendo girl arranged to marry Ranma- but that little arrangement is no more."

"What!" Both men screamed in shock, outrage and denial.

Her grin now thoroughly shark-like, Ukyo triumphantly withdrew a certain special document from her pocket and waved it in front of them. "I don't know if you two ever had a written contract… but, knowing you, I doubt you ever thought that far ahead. And even if you did, this little document completely negates it. Your own precious daughter signed Ranma over to me, and so now he belongs to me and to me alone."

Soun and Genma stared at her horrorstruck, beads of sweat speckling their faces and nervous tremors clearly running through them. Finally, one of them shouted, "look behind you!"- even though Ukyo had been anticipating something like this, she couldn't help but look… whereupon she turned back to find her hand now empty and Soun Tendo frantically chewing on something. She smirked sarcastically and shook her head softly; she knew they would pull a stupid trick like this, and so she had made ample preparations. With a grin, she pulled out another copy of the contract and dangled it before them. This time Soun didn't even bother to distract her before snatching it away and eating it.

Her grin stretched from ear to ear as she casually dumped dozens of copies of the contract in front of them, the original tucked away safely back at her home/restaurant, then bounced away to retrieve her husband-to-be, leaving the devastated old men to wallow in their attempts at self-denial. She knew she had broken her promise to Nabiki by revealing she was the one who sold Ranma to her, but she didn't care. Hell, as far as she was concerned, she'd been lying from the beginning- Nabiki had nothing on her, and so she wasn't scared of the would-be con artist. All that mattered to her was claiming what was rightfully hers, the boy she loved. She grinned with delight when she threw open the door to the Tendo guestroom and found a startled Ranma sitting there reading a manga.

"Ukyo? What are you doing here?"

"I came to get you, Ranma-honey. Pack your bags; you're moving out."

"Say what!?" Ranma blurted in disbelief.

"You heard me. There's no reason for you to stay here at the Tendo Dojo anymore, and I'm not heartless enough to leave you to live on the street." Ukyo replied pleasantly.

"Uh, what about that stupid engagement junk the old men are always going on about? Don't that count as a reason?" Ranma asked, growing steadily more bewildered.

"Oh, that's been called off." Ukyo said nonchalantly, having already begun digging around to find Ranma's things and start getting them together.

"Say what!?" Ranma blurted in disbelief. He knew his old man and Soun Tendo were dead-set on that stupid engagement, and the thought that they had suddenly decided to call it off… his mind reeled at the thought.

"You heard me. Nabiki was your official Tendo fiancée… so, that meant she had legal disposition over the contract. She called it off earlier today- that means I'm your one and only fiancée now, Ranchan!" Ukyo beamed with delight at the shell-shocked Saotome, slinging his backpack with all his belongings onto her own shoulders (sheesh, no wonder Ranma had so much strength and stamina- how many years had he been carrying this stuff?) before gently helping him to his feet and leading him out of the house.

"Ucchan always did know how to take charge of a situation." Ranma-Prime murmured to himself. He decided to set the mirror to jump to the first major shift in the two's relationship; that tended to be the most interesting part to watch in these timelines.

When Ukyo woke up, the dawn was especially beautiful as far as she was concerned. While it had taken some doing, she had finally managed to convince Ranma to stay at her home with her, though he hadn't been as happy about it as she had hoped. Still, she had hope that he would come to understand her motives- and the fact he and Akane had started quarreling when she had burst onto the scene, Akane refusing to accept that her sister was to blame for Ranma's leaving, surely had to help him put the whole thing in perspective… right? Then again, the fact that every whacko in Nerima with a "right" to Ranma had been coming after them in the last few days was just the sort of situation that could keep him from thinking of things that way

Ukyo frowned to herself, stopping her preparations in the shop as that train of thought sapped away the joy she had been feeling over finally having Ranma staying in her home, without any unwelcome company. Although that wasn't entirely true, now was it? Not only had she been confronted by Akane and Shampoo, but also those Kuno nutjobs, as well as Soun and Genma- hell, she had no doubts that when he found out about it, that moron Ryoga was likely to get in on the whole mess as well, given his ridiculous stance on "punishing" Ranma whenever Akane got upset.

Ukyo was actively scowling now, her chores long forgotten; how on earth was she going to be able to persuade Ranma that she was the only girl for him with that parade of freaks barging in and being kicked out nonstop? To say nothing of what they did the restaurant in the process!

Sitting down behind the grill, Ukyo wondered for a moment if some kami or the other disapproved of her relationship with Ranma- why else would every attempt to raise herself in his eyes come crashing down in failure? She was just lucky so far that she hadn't lost any ground with him… but holding steady was no great victory when, by default, his attitude towards her wasn't overtly romantic, now was it? There had to be something she could do, but what?

And then it was that her gaze fell upon the old tourist magazines that had first begun the turn of events that had culminated in the Great Girly-Girl Gambit, as she'd heard some obnoxious kids at Furinkan dub it. Unthinkingly picking them up and flipping through them, a plan began to form in her head. The bozo brigade couldn't interfere if they couldn't find them, now could they? A shame about the restaurant, but being able to sell from anywhere was the point of her family business, so it would be a worthwhile sacrifice to help her and Ranma get together.

Though she could understand why Ranma wouldn't be so enthused about the idea when presented to him immediately upon waking up, the delay still annoyed Ukyo, who was beginning to develop a paranoid assurance that the others would come busting into the shop at any moment now. Finally, Ranma finished his breakfast and was ready to talk about it.

"So, why do you want to leave town?" Ranma asked, his tone bordering on dismissive.

"Oh, so you like being stung by hornets?" Ukyo replied sarcastically, much to Ranma's confusion (and a few painful memories of his speed training).

"…What are you talking about?" Ranma finally asked.

"In case you haven't noticed, everyone who considers themselves involved in this mess knows about you moving out. And that means that, as far as they're concerned, it's open season on you. Don't you think it would be smarter to get out of town for a while?" Ukyo asked patiently, trying to keep herself from sounding like she was pleading.

'Not to mention that I'm never going to make you see that I'm the one for you if we keep getting interrupted like we have.' Ukyo thought sourly.

Ranma shook his head. "I never run from a fight." He insisted stubbornly.

Ukyo was starting to get angry at Ranma's defiance; what was his problem? "It's not running if you're merely getting time to think on how to make your next attack, is it? After all, don't you have a technique based on that very idea?"

Ranma twitched, and Ukyo knew that her comment had glanced off the truth. Rather amazing; she had just thrown that out there due to her knowledge that Ranma's style was Anything Goes, she had no idea he really did have a technique based around running away to think of how to make a new attack. Somewhat in a lighter humor now, Ukyo decided to try and relieve the tension still further.

"Or is there some reason you don't want to leave town? Maybe you want to go back to the Tendo Dojo?"

She had been trying to make a joke, but the sudden silence and the shift in Ranma's body language made it all too clear that she had struck an unintentional nerve.

Ukyo blinked, "I don't believe it." She shook her head in disbelief, "You actually want to go back to see Akane? For what? To see if she'll take you back as her fiancé?"

Ukyo shook her head again as Ranma stayed silent, "Why the hell would you want to go back to Akane for? So she can hit over the head again? You're just like some freaking puppy! What the hell is so special about her, huh? Tell me!"

"At least she accepts me!" Ranma protested instinctively- and immediately realized that he probably couldn't have said something worse if he'd actually been trying to do so. Ukyo looked ready to explode, battle aura just starting to shimmer into the visible spectrum, when she visibly reigned herself back.

'How dare he!' Ukyo fumed. 'No, wait, calm down Ucchan; you've seen the little brat and Ranma go at this a hundred times before in the past, you know that if you start screaming at him, he'll just start screaming back. Calm down, and make him see sense- that's the way to get your point across!'

Ukyo sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, "Have you hit your head or something recently? Akane, accept you? She considers you a pervert and won't hear a word otherwise, and primarily because of your curse. She distrusts you and is all too willing to believe the worst of you, even when it's coming from people she should know are enemies of either you or her. She can be nice to you? So what! She's nice to everyone, even Ryoga and Mousse, and she's even nicer to them than she is to you- when was the last time she screamed at Ryoga, huh? Or bashed him in the head? Face it, you're low on her list of people she considers respectable."

Ukyo held up a finger as Ranma opened his mouth, "You want an example? How about when we went shopping yesterday and those Kuno maniacs chased us for three hours; Akane was right there, in case you've forgotten, and she was calling you a pervert every step of the way."

Ukyo sighed, "That's what's so damn confusing Ranma, why you always keep going back to Akane? Are you that desperate for friends Ranma that you make do with that brat?" Ranma made to say something but Ukyo was on a roll, "If that's so, then why not me? We were friends as kids Ranma, and I want to be your friend again."

"Ukyo... we are friends." Ranma insisted. "At least, I thought we were friends..."

"Until I said I wanted to marry you, is that right?" Ukyo closed her eyes as Ranma nodded, "There is no exclusion between wanting to be someone's friend and being in love with them, in fact I would say that there's no difference at all. And do you know what's the difference between Akane and myself?"

Ukyo continued before Ranma could answer Ukyo continued, "Constancy. Akane is fickle as the wind, unable to decide if she wants to help you or hurt you. Me, meanwhile, I know what I want; I want you, as a friend, as a lover, and I want to help you. So why is it that I'm always second best, no matter what I do? I give you free food, you barely spare me a thanks before running back to Akane. I went with you to Yumogi Valley to help you recover your strength, but you forget all about me when Akane shows up. Hell! Did you even thank me for trying to help you, for supporting you, for trying to give you all the solace and comfort I could?"

Ukyo paused to take several deep breaths, evidently aiming to calm herself down before speaking. When she did so, her voice was soft and faint. "I know that it's not all your fault, Ranma. I know that growing up with Genma means you don't really know what to say to a girl, or what a normal date is like, and I don't blame you for that. I can live with that- in a way, that innocence is part of your charm. It's the other stuff that hurts."

Ukyo turned away at that moment, "I'm going upstairs. Leave me alone."

Ranma could only sit and watch as Ukyo vanished up the steps, still reeling under the impacts of her words. Now, while Ranma was many things, both positive and negative, heartless he was not. Add to that the fact he truly considered himself and Ukyo to be friends, and that he had no idea he was actually hurting her in the way she claimed he was, and couldn't help but feel guilty. Finally, that guilt motivated him to get up and go after Ukyo.

When he finally found her, she was lying on her bed and most likely still crying, though it was impossible for him to say given that she was facing away from him and silent as the grave. For a long moment he stood there, trying to think of what to say, when Ukyo finally broke the silence for him.

"What do you want Ranma? I told you I wanted to be to be left alone for a while."

"I know that. I just... I... I wanted to say... that I'm sorry." Ranma finally said.

Now, Ukyo knew in her head that to actually hear an apology from Ranma was something rare, and rarely faked. However, her heart was still too consumed with pain to care.

"Yeah, so you're sorry. So now what? You gonna go back to that brat again once you're done buttering me up?"

Ranma winced; he was really out of his depth here, and he didn't have a clue as to how to try and solve things. Finally, as he had been taught to do, he went with instincts and winged it. "I ain't really any good with words, so I don't know what I can say to make up for everything, but I do want us to be friends Ukyo... I never had many friends, and I don't wanna lose you. Please, is there something I can do?"

Ukyo turned to face him, "There is one thing you can do."

Ranma's eyes widened hopeful. "What? What is it?"

Ukyo looked away, "Give me a chance. Just...give me a chance to prove that I actually give a damn about you. That's all I want, a chance."

Ranma almost visibly wilted with relief. "That's all? Of course! Anything you want Ucchan!"

With that, Ukyo stood up, "Then lets go do something interesting Ranchan, just the two of us. What do you say we get away from Nerima? Get away from these lunatics and just explore Japan. We can make a vacation out of it before we come back into the madhouse again."

Now, it must be admitted, Ranma did freeze up for a moment at that. However, he had given his word and he truly wanted to keep it. Besides, he had to admit that the idea of going back on the road for a while was tempting. He knew he'd be in for a world of hurt if he came back to Nerima after being away too long... ah, who was he kidding? He was in for hurt when he came back, period. So why not enjoy himself before paying the piper? He nodded his head.

"Sure, Ucchan, sounds good to me."

With that, Ukyo got off of her bed and the two of them began to get their stuff ready to close up shop and get out of town.

As he withdrew from that moment in time, Ranma-Prime shifted uneasily in his seat; did Ukyo's complaints about his counterpart in this timeline have any real validity? Had he really treated her that shabbily? Pushing those thoughts aside as best he could, he began to scroll ahead in the timeline, watching the details of Ranma and Ukyo's journey. Said details made both him and his counterpart feel strangely nostalgic; it reminded them both of the old days with Genma, wandering Japan in the name of perfecting their skills. Ranma-Prime couldn't help but wonder; had all of the opponents he'd fought on the road been as weird, creepy or just plain goofy as the ones his counterpart was facing, or had living in Nerima made him something of a freak magnet?

As he watched things unfold, he couldn't help but wonder; while Ukyo was clearly taking advantage of the openings into Ranma's shell that her tirade had wrought, was she really taking advantage of Ranma's feelings when she herself was motivated to do so by her own love for him? Ukyo didn't force herself against any emotional barricades that Ranma erected- instead, she simply stepped back, assessed them, and then slipped around them, or through any chinks she saw in them. So subtle was this method, as opposed to the blatant, brazen assaults of Shampoo and Kodachi, or even the machinations of Soun and Genma to support Akane, that Ranma couldn't really detect or react to it.

Take, for example, the most prominent facet; the sleeping arrangements. Ukyo had insisted that they had every right to sleep beside each other, not only because they used to do so when they were kids, but also because they were fiancées now. Ranma had insisted that it wasn't right. Ukyo had apparently backed off, but Ranma had woken up the next day to find Ukyo tucked in her sleeping bag… in his tent. He had complained, naturally, and Ukyo had meekly taken it… but the next day found her sleeping beside him again. Not matter what Ranma said, Ukyo would simply sneak in while he was asleep and go to sleep beside him. Even one case where they both ended up staying up all night to outlast the other failed to convince her to stop, and so Ranma finally acquiesced and just let her sleep beside him.

At first, Ukyo took no advantage of this; apparently content merely to be beside Ranma when she slept. Once Ranma grew comfortable with this arrangement, however, Ukyo began to… take liberties. Gradually, step-by-step, she made their arrangement more and more intimate until, one day… Ranma-Prime jerked out of the mirror, face flushed red enough for steam to gush from his ears and a tiny trickle of blood leaking from one nostril. Honest Abe looked up from where he was currently wresting with a particularly stubborn grimoire and couldn't help but laugh at Ranma-Prime's expression.

"Saw a bit more of the little lady than you were anticipating, eh?"

Ranma-Prime chose not to dignify that with a response. Instead, he began speeding back through the timeline, watching the trip from a far more detached viewpoint. He wondered why Ukyo led them on a rambling trip to the coast, then raised an eyebrow when she revealed her intention to take them both to China so Ranma could finally get a cure. Ranma's own protests about the risk this posed were countered with arguments that Shampoo, Cologne and Mousse, the primary local threats, were all in Japan and none of them would have any idea that Ranma had left the country.

The two did eventually come back to Nerima, though Ranma-Prime couldn't help but wonder if that had been Ukyo's intention all along, or if it was motivated by the metaphorical desire to rub her 5-month pregnant stomach in her enemies' faces. Or perhaps it was simply out of the desire to come to some manner of terms with Cologne, so as to call off Shampoo from her hunt. Ranma-Prime watched them trade about a dozen scrolls detailing new martial arts moves, an attempt to "pay the Joketsuzoku back" for teaching Ranma the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken.

Ukyo mentioned that the martial artists who had shared with them the secret of the "Ryuka Ringu" (Ring of Dragon Fire) technique in exchange for the location of Soun Tendo. From her tone, it implied that the Tendo patriarch wouldn't be too happy to see those martial artists. Ranma-Prime wondered why that might be for a moment, but finally decided against skipping back in the timeline to watch that event. He also made a mental note to mention the name of that move to Soun; the eldest Tendo had never really seemed much of a martial artist to him, and for all his eagerness to see "the Schools of Anything Goes united" he had never really shown that the Tendo School actually had any techniques to share. He was not going to be happy if it turned out the old men had been holding out on him…

Before his thoughts could go too far down that road, however, they were diverted by a rather unpleasant surprise. Namely, Cologne revealing that, while she could call off Shampoo's engagement to Ranma, she couldn't call off the Amazon engagement to the Saotomes- in other words; Ranma had proven such an attractive prospect that the Amazon leaders had decided the incorporation of his family into the tribe would be a net gain. Ranma and Ukyo's son would basically have the Amazon village champion of his generation come to woo him once she was 16.

Though this at first seemed like an ass-pull from Cologne to Ranma-Prime, he had to admit that he hadn't really studied the interactions between himself and the Joketsuzoku in other timelines, so it was quite plausible that the same scenario existed there as well. Feeling a little overwhelmed, he willed the mirror to deactivate while he processed everything he'd received from this timeline.

As was mentioned before, Gideon020 and I have decided to throw out the order of the oneshots for this chapter and the next two, for reasons that will hopefully become clear when they're written. However, once those are out of the way, we will revert to the previously established order, so feel free to vote for your desired oneshots both in this chapter and in the next two to come. To remind you all of what oneshots currently remain, here's the list- as an added bonus, with the number of votes each oneshot has currently received.

What If…

Akane's hose pushed Ranma out of the ring in his battle with Kodachi
Votes: 17

Ranma kissed Shampoo back when she gave him the "Kiss of Marriage"
Votes: 11

Kaori won the Takeout Race
Votes: 10

Ukyo managed to actually get her "talk" with Ranma during the Great Girly-Girl Gambit episode
Votes: 9

What if Ukyo had been the one to jump into the tornado for the chart?
Votes: 7

Ranma told Shampoo he loved her during the Reversal Jewel
Votes: 7

Ranma blurted out to Akane that when he said "I love you", he thought she was Nabiki
Votes: 7

Ranma finds out how much Ukyo is hurt after "Swimming with Psychos"
Votes: 6

Ranma and Shampoo failed to kiss before Maomolin rang the bell for the 108th time
Votes: 6

Shampoo resisted the urge to go back and fight with Ukyo during the hotsprings race, so she and Ranma won the trip to Jusenkyo
Votes: 5

When Ranma beat Ling-ling & Lung-lung, they replaced Shampoo as his Amazon bride
Votes: 4

Shampoo thought to get Ranma to sign her marriage license in secret during the Red Thread of Fate affair, so they were still legally married after Akane cut the thread at the last second
Votes: 4

During the Ten-Year Sauce mess, Ukyo actually threw away the sauce like she said she was going to do
Votes: 4

When Ranma ate Akane's love-predicting sakura-mochi, an X appeared on his face
Votes: 3

Ryoga decided to try and hook Ranma & Shampoo up when Shampoo first came to Nerima
Votes: 3

Shampoo figured out Ranma was lying about really being a girl instead of going back to China
Votes: 3

Shampoo snapped her fingers before the cat sneezed when using the Kirahashi Mushroom
Votes: 2

Ranma thought to ask Shampoo to have their date after he beat the Dojo Destroyer
Votes: 2

Akane hadn't gone to Yumogi Valley?
Votes: 1

Ranma tasted Ukyo's sauce without spilling it?
Votes: 1