Ready? If not, too late, because here it comes!

Disclaimer: The rights of Ranma ½ are not coming to me.

Ryu's POV

I've managed to get myself both in and out of trouble both with and without Ranma and Scarlet on numerous occasions. However, this was probably the first time I've ever thought of myself as well and truly screwed. I had just swallowed a bun filled with something that made me susceptible to what was tantamount to mind control. Now Shampoo could do whatever she wanted with me. For her part, Shampoo stood there, looking like the proverbial cat that caught the canary.

"Well, are you just going to stand there?" I asked, while wishing my bedroom had windows.

"Shampoo just thinking about what wording to use. No want to make same mistakes as last time." She replied. After a minute, she finally decided.

"When you hear Shampoo snap her fingers and issue a command, you will follow it. You will not tell or let anyone else know in any way that you are under Shampoo's control. At six o'clock AM and PM, you will find Shampoo so she can give you another bun to eat or earlier to prevent suspicion, every twelve hours. Is Shampoo clear?"

"Unfortunately," I replied. Satisfied, she snapped her fingers, sealing the command.

"So, what would you have me do?" I asked, a bit of bitterness seeping into my voice.

"Well…Shampoo loves Ranma, but she can get so lonely some nights, so far away from her village…" Shampoo let those words hang in the air while wearing a seductive smile. I stiffened in fear. Shampoo then walked forward, seemingly enjoying my squirming under her control. Then suddenly she stopped and nearly keeled over laughing.

"Silly Ryu! Should see look on your face!" Shampoo giggled

"WHAT THE &%$* #^ HELL?! YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER THAN TO JOKE ABOUT STUFF LIKE THAT!" I roared, but only had the effect of worsening Shampoo's giggles.

"No need to worry Ryu, Shampoo only have eyes for Ranma." Shampoo assured me, "What Shampoo wants for now is for you to teach Shampoo to speak better Japanese." She then snapped her fingers.

"That's it? Teach you better Japanese? You can literally make me do anything you want and you want to 'force' me to be your language arts teacher?" I asked, not sure if I was lucky that was all she wanted or unlucky that I had gotten into this situation in the first place.

"For now, Shampoo will be sure to think of other things for you to do," Shampoo promised.

"Oh joy, I can't wait," I answered, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Are you sure you want to take that tone with Shampoo?" Shampoo asked teasingly

"After you pulled that seductress crap, I find it difficult to give a damn," I replied bluntly

"Alright, Shampoo is sorry." Shampoo apologized.

"A better way to apologize would be to release me." I remarked

"Ha ha, nice try," Shampoo said before yawning suddenly, "Anyway, Shampoo going home now. See you later!"

After Shampoo was gone, I collapsed onto my bed. I didn't even try and fool myself into thinking I could get to sleep after what transpired. I just lay awake trying to internalize what had just happened. It felt surreal; knowing at the drop of a hat Shampoo could have me doing absolutely anything. It was absolutely terrifying.

However, a part of me was intrigued to see how this would play out; fascinated by the possibilities this new position presented. I could use this chance to learn more about Shampoo. Maybe even find a way to fix the mess with Ranma and Shampoo. The possibilities that piled up as I thought about it more and more were staggering and more than a little intoxicating.

Before I knew it, I felt the compulsion to head to the Cat Café. I looked at the clock; it was 5:50 am. Just enough time to get there by the 6 o'clock deadline. I decided it would be prudent if the Old Ghoul knew as little about my current situation as possible, so I tried to sneak in… operative word being tried.

"And just what are you doing here so early in the morning, part-time?" I jumped at the sound of the Old Ghoul's voice

"Umm…if you don't ask me I won't ask you?" This caused the Old Ghoul to cackle.

"That one doesn't work very well if one of the two parties is in their own home, Sonny," Cologne snickered

"Alright, if you must know, Shampoo asked me to help her improve her Japanese. I thought I would oblige." Not the whole truth, but hopefully enough to satisfy Cologne. She arched an eyebrow.

"Really now? Great-Granddaughter asked you for help with her Japanese?" Cologne started pogoing away and I followed at her beckoning. She stopped in front of a door and rapped on it before opening it.

"Shampoo, is it true that you asked Ryu to help you with your Japanese?" Shampoo was startled by the sudden intrusion and hesitated a beat before answering.

"Yes Great-Grandmother."

"Very well then, I'll leave you to it." With that, Cologne pogo'd away. Once she was gone, Shampoo handed me a mushroom and I ate it.

"Since I'm here, we might as well start those lessons you wanted before I have to go to school," I suggested. Shampoo agreed and we spent the next hour on that. Thankfully, she was a quick study, which I attribute wholly to her own respectable intellect and not at all to my abysmal language teaching skills. I imagined it would take her a few months at most before she was speaking Japanese like a natural born citizen.

On the way to school, I met up with Ranma, Akane, and Ukyo as usual. Ranma got splashed by the ladle lady, again as usual. The whole morning went so predictably, I thought it would be smooth sailing for a while. After all, Shampoo had just started screwing me over last night. Surely, nothing could go wrong again so quickly.

Then Scarlet's friends Yuka and Sayuri invited both her and Ukyo to go to a hot springs. Suddenly, I got a sinking feeling.

I'm alive. Busy as all hell IRL, but alive. Sorry it took so long to finish this, but I've been having a hard time finding enough time to sit down and write this out. I hope that the next chapter won't take as long. Until then, feel free to review!