One Last Chance ch.12

**** Engaged to Whom ****



Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and all it's characters were created by Rumiko Takahashi I in no way take credit for them, don't sue, this is just a story for entertainment purposes and I am making no money off it.



AN: Quick personal disclaimer, I am writing this for fun, I do not enjoy flames, I welcome constructive criticisms and thoughtful advice.

"Speech"

Thoughts

~~~~Scene change/flashback~~~~~~

{Signs}





Ranma and Akane died thanks to Happosai, rather than let them die they were sent back in time thanks to Ranma's wish for another chance. Both retain their memories and feelings they accumulated; now they have to survive. In the last chapter Loki presented Ranma and Akane with rings that contained a part of the other's essence, the pair of fiancées then decided to return home from the training trip and face the music of whatever may come for them. Ryoga and his companion finally made it back to Japan where Ryoga's companion took over leading the hunt for Ranma so as not to get lost again. Shampoo while training her fighting skills back up also encountered someone who is seeking Ranma. On their way back to the Tendo Dojo, Ranma discovers that their bodies really are aging quickly when Akane's hair is cut in the same way Ryoga's belt cut it. On arrival back at the dojo, Ranma and Akane learn that their parents have decided to switch the engagement from Ranma and Akane to Ranma and Nabiki. Kuno has also convinced their parents to betroth him to Akane.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tendo Home, Nerima, early evening ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Not a chance in hell pops."

"Boy I'm your father, Tendo and I both agreed this was the best path, since your current fiancée is unwilling to marry you it only makes sense to switch the engagement."

Ranma and Akane both began to glow blue, Ranma tightened his hands into fists, while Akane's left eye began to twitch.

"Listen father, Mr. Saotome I fully intend to marry Ranma, but we both want to wait till we get out of high school before we marry."

"Well there really isn't any reason to wait for that now is there, this fine young man has brought some excellent betrothal gifts and explained how much in love you two were before Ranma came along. This way we can cut costs and have a double wedding. Who knows, maybe I could arrange a marriage for Kasumi with one of my old colleague's son too and all my daughters could be happily married together."

Nabiki groaned, Kuno smiled, Soun and Genma patted each other on the back, Ranma and Akane began to grow brighter, and there was the sound of a cup breaking in the kitchen.

"Of all the schemes you could think of, this has to be the worst one yet. Do you honestly think Akane or I will go along with this."

"You have no say in the matter Saotome, this is between the illustrious Tendo patriarch, the beauteous Akane Tendo, and my noble house. Content yourself with the mercenary Nabiki Tendo for the fairest of the Tendo daughters goes to myself as the better man."

A book thrown by Nabiki bounced of Kuno's head.

"That didn't hurt."

"Listen Kuno, dad, Mr. Saotome," the last name was said in a growl, "I have no interest in marrying Kuno, I am already engaged to Ranma by family honour and by him asking me."

Akane held out her hand with displaying the ring she wore, Ranma did likewise.

"We've already sealed our engagement with this rings," Ranma's voice was cool, but dangerous.

Nabiki's eyes locked onto the rings, she practically drooled as she examined them.

"This is pure platinum, my god, these rings are worth a fortune," she said out loud while thinking, Wow, he must have more money than I thought if he could get her a ring like that . . .wait a minute, if he is becoming my fiancée then I would get the ring. It's beautiful, especially that sapphire.

Genma sat in the background, a tiny amount of drool on his lip as he stared at his son's ring. The boy doesn't deserve a ring like that, how dare he keep the money from me, his own father. Oh what a disobedient child.

Soun nodded sagely, "yes, that is true he did propose to you, but family honour takes precedence over such matters of the heart. Since the engagement between you two is merely between you two and not the families, as the heads of our respective clans, we have the right to break it."

Kuno produced a marriage contract and laid it flat on the table.

"Here is the most noble and just engagement agreement, it has already been prepared and awaits but our signatures to seal this righteous joining of the Kuno and Tendo clans."

Nabiki reached out and picked up the paper, looking it over. She couldn't see any hidden meanings, loopholes, or any other snags that might come up. She raised an eyebrow at the point where Akane Tendo would become Akane Kuno, her little sister wouldn't like that one bit.

"It looks fines to me, I don't see anything wrong with the agreement," Nabiki flatly stated, placing the papers back on the table.

Before either Kuno or Soun could sign the agreement Ranma picked it up to look it over.

"Saotome, have you no honour, interrupting Akane and my declaration of love and the binding of our holy union. How dare you!"

"Quite right son, this is between the Tendo and Kuno clans, as you're now Nabiki's fiancée, this doesn't have anything to do with you."

Ranma ignored the two and shot a look at Akane, sending an unspoken message. Akane picked up on his thoughts and stepped forwards standing between Ranma and the others in the room.

"Listen, this isn't right, I don't want to marry Kuno, I want to marry Ranma, we're just not ready to get married until we are out of High School. I have no interest in Kuno and I can barely even tolerate him, so why would I want to marry him."

"Oh beautiful Akane, you need not hide your feelings for me anymore, soon we shall be engaged and you can show your true feelings towards me."

Akane was about to either attack Kuno or verbally lash out, but Ranma never gave her the chance.

"Fine, if that's the way you want it, sign the paper, if it's family honour I can't stop you from making an engagement that has nothing to do with me."

Akane turned on him and was about to say something when Soun spoke up.

"I'm glad you understand son," Soun grabbed the paper and signed it, placing the family seal on it as well.

Akane watched in horror, unable to move as Kuno took the paper and added his own signature and seal to the contract.

"Well, now that this piece of business is out of the way we can celebrate. I think it would be a good idea if my new son-in-law and my daughter spent some time together," Soun suggested, beaming brightly.

"I agree with you completely Tendo, and this will give my boy a chance to get to know his new fiancée better," Genma added.

Nabiki eyed her sister's ring; it would belong to her now that she was Ranma's fiancée.

"What new fiancée pops, I'm engaged to Akane," Ranma sounded confused, but he had a confident expression on his face and a note of mirth in his voice.

"Nay for with this agreement I am now engaged to the fair Akane Tendo and you are engaged to the money grubbing Nabiki Tendo," Kuno loudly declared.

Ranma took Akane's hand and walked out of the room leaving the others behind them.

"You might want to have another look at the marriage agreement before you go making wild statements like that," Ranma called over his shoulder as he and Akane went up the stairs.

Nabiki picked up the contract to see what Ranma could possibly mean. After a few moments it fell from her fingers, her face frozen in a gasp of shock.

Kuno picked up the engagement agreement to see what could possibly affect someone as unshakable as the middle Tendo sister. Shortly afterwards he was in much the same condition as Nabiki.

Soun picked up the paper that seemed to be paralyzing the room and began reading while Genma looked over his best friend's shoulder.

"Well I don't see what all the trouble is, I say we go celebrate, how about you Saotome," Soun asked, laying the paper flat on the table.

Genma merely nodded, glancing at the paper on the table, I'm sure this is the boy's fault, how dare he, he'd have been better of with the middle sister, she could manage finances better then that female imitation of a martial artist.

Genma grumbled silently as he followed his friend, as an after thought his mind went to the ring his son had been wearing. Well, as his father it's my job to teach the boy a lesson about obedience. He should obey his father after all.

Leaving Kuno and Nabiki frozen where they were, the two old men left the room. Shortly afterwards Kasumi entered the room and saw the marriage contract lying forgotten on the table.

"Oh my, I'd better take this and put it in a safe place."

Kasumi looked over the paper that everyone else had so recently seen.

"My how strange I thought Akane was going to be the one engaged to Kuno."

On the contract, where once the name Akane Tendo had been written were all replaced by the name Nabiki Tendo.

"I never realized Nabiki and Kuno were interested in each other, how nice that this didn't disturb Akane and Ranma."

Kasumi left the room, carrying the adjusted marriage contract. Kuno and Nabiki were left alone, both staring off into space with frozen expressions, which managed to be both shocked and horrified at once.

Upstairs Akane began laughing uncontrollably as her true fiancée filled her in on what names the marriage contract held.

Kasumi finished her chores after tucking away the very important document into a safe place.

The two fathers celebrated, one happy two thirds of his children were now happily engaged, one silently plotting vengeance on an ungrateful son.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Shampoo's camp, Outside Osaka ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





Shampoo sat at her campsite, finishing her dinner and talking with the figure that had entered her campsite to talk to her. The two were currently engaging in a serious discussion. Anyone listening in wouldn't be able to understand the two unless they spoke Chinese. As such they were relatively safe to talk at the level they were.

"Why are you here," Shampoo asked the newcomer.

"I'm here to help you child," came the response from the figure sitting across the fire from the Amazon warrior. The figure was sitting in the shadows, hiding all features from view, except for an outline of the cloaked figure.

"An Amazon huntress is meant to carry out her task alone when she gives the kiss of death. She is not to receive any help from others in her task, unless she has no other choice," Shampoo argued, she wasn't sure who the other figure was.

This stranger's voice was soft and it was hard to tell whether it was a soft-spoken male or a quiet female. Whichever it was, the person kept their voice whisper quiet, but somehow, Shampoo could hear the voice like it came from next to her ear, and not from across a crackling campfire.

The stranger's cloak did nothing to assist Shampoo in her observations. The hood of the cloak concealed not only the figure's face, but the rest of the cloak hid the body from view. Even the figure's hands were covered in black gloves. For some reason the light cast by the fire didn't pierce the shadows of the figure's hood.

Shampoo shrugged such thoughts off. It was beneath her as an Amazon champion to have such fears and worries so insignificant as not being able to see the face of the person she was talking too.

"Don't worry child this is a special situation, you aren't aware of certain facts which you will need to know for hunting this specific prey."

"Ok, I'll listen, but this had better be good."

Although she couldn't see under the hood, Shampoo could have sworn that her companion smiled.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tendo Home, Night ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple of hours have passed since Nabiki and Kuno both received the shock of their lives, being engaged to each other.

Ignoring the rest of their family, Ranma and Akane, still happily engaged to each other, had gone to their separate bedrooms, not without a little regret, to get some sleep.

Nabiki and Kuno had eventually come to their senses, wordlessly Nabiki had gone to her room, praying to wake up from the nightmare and Kuno had stumbled home.

Kasumi was asleep in her bed.

Soun was passed out in his own bed.

Genma was standing over his son's futon, staring at the expensive ring, which his son wore.

It's the boy's own fault, I was just trying to look out for me . . . him and try to protect my-our future. He owes me that ring for all I've done for him. I deserve that ring.

If people could hear the thoughts going through Genma Saotome's head, many would believe that he was trying to justify his actions to assuage his conscience. Those people would be wrong, as a matter of fact; this is a standard train of what passes for logical thought. Genma's conscience had been whittled down starting with the training under his master and had effectively died when he first sold Ranma for food.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nabiki's room ~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Nabiki was lying in her bed; she had taken a couple of aspirin to help her with the headache she knew was coming.

Engaged to Kuno, she couldn't believe this, things just kept getting crazier and crazier around Nerima.

First, this panda, which happens to be the father of a boy who turns into a girl shows up and announce that the aqua-transsexual is engaged to one of them.

Then her sister, who hates boys and is a suspected closet lesbian, accepts the engagement to the aqua-transsexual and has no problems with it. What's more her sister acts like she's known the guy for a long time.

Then her sister makes this wild claim that the two of them are from the future and they were sent back in time for kami only knows why.

Nabiki was a skeptic at heart, yet she had no choice but to believe Ranma's curse otherwise she'd be as delusional as Kuno figuring out Akane doesn't love him. As a matter of fact she'd be even more delusional then Kuno, even he'd believe the curse if he had it demonstrated for him.

As for the time traveling story her younger sister had come up with, Nabiki didn't know how she came up with it or why, but it was painfully false, it had plot holes so big that even Kuno's ego could fit through with room to spare.

Nabiki realized that her sister might be so accepting of the relationship, because she really was a closet lesbian and this would give her a chance to indulge freely without anyone knowing about it. Nabiki didn't mind this at all.

What she did mind was the fact her sister seemed to steal every guy that came near her. Nabiki had been hoping that maybe this once, she could get to a guy before her sister, or her reputation as the ice-queen scared the guy away.

Nabiki swore to herself that she wouldn't let her sister steal this guy too. After all, he was a hunk of a guy and he seemed pretty decent, Nabiki wouldn't have minded being engaged to him.

That was why she had convinced Kuno and the fathers to go along with the whole switching of the engagement and new arranged marriage. Convincing Kuno had actually been more difficult then convincing Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum.

Kuno had been convinced of Akane's love for him and that as soon as she could find a way to free herself of being trapped into her engagement she would fly into his arms and share their love. It had taken Nabiki several hours and not a few pictures to spell out to Kuno that since she was bound by family honour, why not make it so the family honour binds Akane to him. Kuno had begun spouting nonsensical poetry and laughing so Nabiki had taken her cue and left.

The old fools were surprisingly easy to convince. Both wanted to get Ranma and Akane married the minute they could subdue the two of them. Nabiki merely had to point out that she'd be more willing to get married sooner than Akane would. Having a husband with a body like Ranma's, what straight girl in her right mind wouldn't want to have a little fun?

It seemed Genma Saotome wasn't too fond of her little sister either and seemed to be quite willing to have the engagement switched. He easily convinced her father that this was the right course. Nabiki had noted that the elder Saotome could manipulate her father very easily. She wasn't yet sure of just how good or bad a thing that was. She would have to watch to make sure his influence didn't get out of hand.

Nabiki was actually thankful that Akane and Ranma had taken their training trip; it gave her enough time to convince the three fools to go along with her plan.

Nabiki thought it had been one of her better plans too, but due to the mistakes in the contract, now she had to find a way out of her engagement with Kuno and get herself engaged to Ranma.

Now she was stuck with the fool and Akane still had Ranma.

Nabiki crawled under her blankets and tried to get some sleep, she'd figure out how to get out of the situation tomorrow. Tonight she needed her sleep.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Nabiki bolted upright as the scream tore through the house.

She raced out into the hall and headed for the guest room where the Saotome's were staying.

As she got to the open door she slowed and stuck her head around the corner.

On the floor was a beaten and twisted Genma Saotome. Above him, standing on the man's back, stood what appeared to be a very angry Ranma Saotome.

"What the hell are you thinking pops, trying to take my ring?"

"What's going on here," Nabiki nearly jumped out of her skin as she heard her younger sister's voice.

She quickly put on her mask of the ice-queen and turned to face her sister.

"Well, it seems like Mr. Saotome tried to take that lovely ring from your fiancée and is paying for it."

"Oh, is that all?"

"I believe so, if you want to know more it will be 500 yen," Nabiki smirked holding out her hand.

"No thanks Nabiki, see you tomorrow, I'm sure you and your new fiancée will want to get to know each other better," Akane called over her shoulder as she walked back to her room. This had the result of leaving Nabiki fuming at her sister, her sister's fiancée, and certain bokken-wielding idiots who couldn't get a contract right if his life depended on it, which it probably had, or at least the life of his pocket book.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Aomori, Japan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





"You sure this is the right way?"

"For the last time, you ask me that question again and I will tear off your head and kick it to Tokyo."

Ryoga shot an annoyed glance at his companion, he didn't have to go and say that, it's not like Ryoga was insulting his companion, he just felt that they should be going in a different direction, any direction, but the one they were heading.

Sure his companion had said they were going south and that south was the way to Tokyo from Aomori, but there was a sign that said Aomori right there and Ryoga knew for a fact that Aomori was due East of Tokyo.

We should be going west right now, Ryoga thought to himself while staring east.

Ryoga couldn't help shake off the feeling of wrongness that was upon him. Wisely he decided to keep his mouth shut and the two continued walking towards Tokyo.

Yes actually towards Tokyo not a different direction, against all odds Ryoga was heading in the right direction. The leash he had round his neck that was attached to his companion's hand only had a little to do with this though . . . Actually it was the only reason Ryoga wasn't lost yet, but he doesn't need to know that.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tendo house, Morning ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





It was a nice sunny morning in the Nerima district, birds were chirping, barely a cloud in the sky, although that could change in less than a minute. For all appearances it appeared to be a nice and quiet day. We all know what they say about appearances being deceiving.

Genma, who had managed to unknot himself after the brutal mangling he had received at the hands of his son, was ready for a little payback. Watching the sleeping figure of his son, he silently stalked over to the boy's sleeping form.

Hovering over the boy for a second Genma got an evil glint in his eyes. He reached down to grab at the sleeping form of his son who was curled up under his blanket.

Only to find his hands on a pillow that had replaced his son's form.

"O-Y-A-G-I," A soft cooing voice came from above Genma, sending chills through his spine.

Genma looked up, just in time to get a face-full of his son's feet as Ranma swung down from where he had been gripping the ceiling.

The panda man flew through the open window out into the Koi pond. Ranting in panda gibberish about an ungrateful son, water, and food all at once.

As the panda pulled himself out of the water, he looked up, just in time to receive another hit to the face from Ranma. Genma staggered back before trying to take up a ready stance.

The beating Ranma gave Genma over the next minute was truly grotesque, horrifying, and well below what the panda deserved.

"Ahh, nothing like a good workout in the morning," Ranma, still male, said as he walked in and sat at the table.

"Oh my, that was quite a display Ranma-kun," Kasumi said.

Kasumi had never considered herself to be a mean person, but there was something strangely comforting and pleasant in hearing the panda whimper. Kasumi hoped this didn't make her a bad person.

What Kasumi didn't know was that the gods of pacifism, peace, and unconditional love had taken even more pleasure out of the beating Genma had received than she did. As a matter of fact the only god that didn't taken pleasure in the beating was . . . Well actually there wasn't a god who didn't take some kind of pleasure out of seeing Genma beaten. Even the author took pleasure in having Genma beaten, an event he feels will have to become regular in this story, but the author is somewhat of a sadist.

"Yeah Ranma, nice work out there," Nabiki said, admiring the way Ranma's bare arms glistened in the morning light and how his tank top clung to his body.

"GAAHHHH, we're going to be late for school," Akane yelled as she . . . Well she was moving breakneck pace around the house getting ready for school.

Ranma quickly finished his breakfast and stood up, heading for the furo as Akane came into the room. They both slowed briefly to say good morning and share a smile, before heading off to complete their morning routines.

Ten minutes later the two were running down the streets or in actuality fences by the streets of Nerima, heading for Furinkan.

"I sure hope Kuno's not going to be going after you anymore now that he's engaged to your sister."

"I hope so, but remember what happened last time Kuno thought that Nabiki was the one he was going to marry."

Ranma shuddered at the memory, a fortune teller had told Kuno he would encounter the woman he was destined to marry at a certain place and time. The person happened to be Nabiki. Kuno had begun to pursue her, but couldn't decide what to do about Akane and the pigtailed goddess. In the end he declared Nabiki would be his wife while the pigtailed girl and Akane would be his mistresses.

Ranma still shuddered at the memory of Kuno's declarations of love.

They neared the gates of Furinkan, neither sure whether they would be preparing themselves for a nice leisurely run to class to avoid the tardy bell, or a Kuno beating coupled with bucket duty.

"You realize that if you stopped fighting with your father in the mornings, we wouldn't always be late, don't you," Akane asked Ranma as they ran along on top of the fence, leaping down as one so they ran beside each other.

"Yeah I know, why do you think I've started pounding him in the mornings rather than just sparring with him. He hates pain and if I keep this up maybe he'll eventually give up on his Saotome Surprise Sunrise Strike," Ranma shook his head, why did his father have to come up with such long winded names for techniques that could be better named 'ambush', 'groveling', or 'running away', "I figure a few more days of it and he'll give up and stop bothering me, then you and I can spar peacefully instead."

Akane smiled at the memory Ranma's words evoked, last time it had taken her mallet and a lot of time to convince Mr. Saotome that she was good enough to spar with his son. Genma could never understand how the girl could never lay a foot or finger on him, but that mallet never failed to catch him, or the dumbbells she'd throw or the Shinai she'd carry, or any other weapon/house hold object Akane would pull out of nowhere. He almost regretted calling Ranma sloppy for being hit by them, but then realized it must have been his son's fault and cheered up.

"Don't worry, whatever we face through those gates we'll face them together," Akane told her fiancée, reaching down and giving his hand a squeeze.

"You're right about that," Ranma replied, returning the squeeze with his own hand.

With a shared breath they turned into the schoolyard.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ South of Aomori, Japan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"Are you sure this is the right way?"

"ARGGHHHH, That's it your dead."

"Come on."

The two rushed each other; a punch from Ryoga accidentally knocked his companion over the side of a very steep incline. Unfortunately for Ryoga he was still attached to his companion and very quickly found himself going over the edge too.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

"AAAAAAAAARanmathisisallyourfaultAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Somewhere else ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





"You know, I almost feel sorry for that idiot panda, but that was just too funny to watch," the cloaked figure chuckled slightly to itself.

The armoured figure didn't share the other's sense of humour, "I don't find this situation quite as amusing as you seem to."

"And why would that be, might it have something to do with those harmless rings that the godslayer and his mate are wearing?"

A slight amount of anger entered the armoured figure's voice, "you know damned well that's what I am talking about, those rings are more than they appear, Loki must of put a piece of the other in it, I can't tell if he put a piece of their soul, life energy, both, or something else into the rings. I can also tell that there is something dormant in those rings, something hidden from their bearers. I don't know what Loki's done, but this disturbs me greatly."

The cloaked figure had no response to the vehement tone the armoured figure used.

"We might be forced to act sooner than I thought," the armoured figure said, settling down slightly and leaning back into the obsidian throne.

"All the players are not yet on the stage though, are you sure it is wise to push forwards so soon?"

"Positive."

"Only fools are positive."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

The two figures laughed.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ End of chapter 12, TBC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





An: Well that's another chapter of the story done. For those of you who think that Nabiki wouldn't be interested in Ranma or a fiancée and believe this might be out of character, remember that she dressed up in a Kimono and prettied herself up when she learnt there was a fiancée coming. She also was quite eager to meet the fiancée, standing up and running to the door when she heard them arrive. Finally, throughout both the series and manga, when Nabiki interacts with Ranma she is constantly flirting with him and not just when she wants something.

For anyone interested in the geography of the situation, Aomori is the northern most part of the Tohoku region, immediately south of Hokkaido. It is North of Tokyo. Osaka on the other hand is west of Tokyo.

If anyone has any comments on the story I would love to hear about them, advice and compliments are also welcome. In case anyone wonders, I read all the reviews I get about the story and if requested I am more than willing to respond or communicate with anyone so interested. If you do send an e- mail to me please put 'one last chance' or 'fan fiction' in the title if you want me to read it promptly otherwise I might accidentally skip over it.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, if you want to contact me and have me respond, E-mail me at rhuobhe26@hotmail.com and I'll try to get back in touch with you as soon as possible. Thanks.

-Rhuobhe26