The Art____Chapter 7: The Choice
by GreggSharp

Ranma 1/2 created by Rumiko Takahashi, AMG created by Kosuke Fujishima, Gold Digger owned/created by Fred Perry.

Thanks to Harvey Vogt Jr for sending me the file with the original FFML versions of The Art so i could put these up. Now looking to do the same for "Neutral Ground" and "Dragon's Destiny".

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It had been almost a month now since Ranma had come to Nerima. (The neighbors could have sworn longer, and that the calenders were lying, but this time they wrong. It had actually been just short of a month.) The days had settled into a routine, which had given some necessary stability to Ranma's life.

Morning would see him sparring with his father or Shampoo to increase his HTH skills. This would be followed by breakfast with Kasumi's shy flirting, Nabiki's talk about finances and the local news, Akane grumbling about whatever she was blaming him (or Ukyo or the Challenger/Monster Of The Week) for at the moment, Shampoo coming by to tell him the shower was ready (usually accompanied by an offer to scrub his back), and Akane finally making a half-hearted attempt to be nice.

The run to school, culminating with a short battle with Tatewaki Kuno using his latest "anti-evil sorcerer" technique or gadget. Sometimes Kuno would just try the "Wizard Of Oz" method and rejoice at the return of his Osage No Onna. Followed shortly thereafter by the great Tatewaki Kuno getting fried, zapped, frozen, or pummelled.

The run to school was followed by a number of girls passing him notes in class, which he typically ignored unless it included a free lunch. He'd be sitting between Ukyou and Akane and they tended to "ride herd" on him. The two stuck with him most of the day. Akane usually glaring at him, or at Ukyou, or at everyone else around her. Ukyou was usually flirting, making double entrede comments, or talking about Her Dream. (This was the one where her eatery became a nationwide chain, alternatively it became so world-reknowned that people came from all over just to have an Ucchan's okonomiyaki.)

The end of the school day saw the scheduled fight with Ryouga, sometimes in his wereform (nicknamed "Porkchop" by the locals) and sometimes his Faerie cursed hyper-kawaii form (nicknamed "P-chan" by Akane who still hadn't figured out that her little pet pig was actually the very same Ryouga who had accidently cut her hair with a magic sword.) Ranma then went home, did his homework, tried to figure out a new spell, and did whatever odd jobs Nabiki had arranged for him.
Sometimes this just required a Quick Fix spell to repair simple damaged items, sometimes it was much more challenging like the bodyguard job on the visiting idol singer or being on retainer with one of the local "ghost sweeper" companies.

Yes, even this sort of life had become a routine.

Unfortunately, Ranma noted to himself on the roof of the Tendo house, it had also made the month of his postponed decision run by way too fast.

"So what are you going to do?" Ryouga was watching the clouds overhead. Kasumi had made it perfectly clear that the house was NOT to be used as a battlefield. Ryouga had argued the point, once.

"They've all got their pluses and minuses, you know." Ranma sighed and watched the people going by. How nice it must be to have a NORMAL life. No vengeance crazed wereboars, no AT-field generating ribbon-weaponed would-be fiancees, no multiple fiancees ready to break into open combat, no crazed and clueless kendoists throwing buckets of water. Just a nine-to-five job and coming home to the wife and kids. It would be boring.

Boring sounded really nice at times.

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Nabiki smirked. She KNEW it had been a good idea to use electronic eavesdropping on the roof. Esper or magical scrying would have been detected by Ranma, but many of the esper/magic crowd tended to forget about the wonders of technology.

Collecting her yen at the door, she started letting the fiancees know that The Decision was going to be made soon, and if they wanted it piped into Ucchan's...1000 yen apiece.

Nabiki became much wealthier, very quickly.

(WRITER'S NOTE: picture this as a split screen. The top half showing the two on the rooftop. The bottom half showing people at Ucchan's.)

Rooftop:

"So you HAVEN'T made a decision," Ryouga asked. "In that case, can I have Akane?"

Ucchan's:
Akane abruptly choked on her tea, requiring Nabiki to pound her back until she stopped.

Rooftop:

"I dunno, Ryouga. There are times when she isn't angry and she smiles, and she is just SO cute then. Her smile can really light up a room, y'know."

Ucchan's:

Akane blinks. A hesitant smile appears on her face. "He called me...cute?! But but but we're not ready to be married."

Everyone else glares at Akane.

Rooftop:

Ryouga glanced over at Ranma before turning his apparent attention back to the clouds. "Yeah, and most of the time she's ready to pound you for things you haven't done or at least aren't your fault. Face it, you and her don't get along because in some ways you are too alike."

Ranma looked startled. "Ryouga, when did you get so philosphical?"

Ryouga snorted, sounding very piglike when he did so. "I spend a lot of time alone, you can get very introspective when you're lost in a foreign land with no one to talk to."

"Yeah, I guess." Ranma turned his gaze back to the street. "Still, Akane has her good points. She has a lot of fire, doesn't back down from a confrontation, and you can count on her speaking her mind. Her telekinetic skills and her martial arts are both pretty good."

Ucchan's:

Akane is practically beaming at the praise. Ukyou watches as a bowl of peanuts lifts up off a table to join a crowd of similar objects floating in midair.

Rooftop:

"On the other hand, she's violent, never gives me a chance, and hates my guts. So she's not a good choice."

Ucchan's:

Ukyou looked over the various items now scattered all over the floor. "Akane, since you made the mess, I think y'all should be the one to clean it up. Broom's over there."

Rooftop:

"Then there's Shampoo."

Ucchan's:

"Uh oh. Shampoo near beginning of list, this not bode well." Swearing something in Mandarin about how this must be her purple-haired destiny, she turned her attention to her tea. "Pfeh. Stupid mage."

Rooftop:
"Shampoo's loving and caring, I get the impression that she'll make someone a nice wife."

"As long as Mousse doesn't return and try to make her a vampire like himself." Ryouga closed his eyes. "Maybe I ought to go after her if you're not. I hear she likes strong guys."

"I thought you liked Akane."

"I love Akane. I think if she finds out I'm P-chan as well as Porkchop I'll have trouble keeping from out of the frypan."

Ucchan's:

Akane is being restrained from running out the door by Shampoo and Ukyou. "LET ME AT HIM! He's seen me in the nude, the lech! That PIG!"

"Shhhh, we'll miss the rest of this if you don't quiet down!"

Rooftop:

"Anyway, do you remember back to that little contest with Kodachi the Black Rose?"

"How could I forget?"

"Remember how Akane was watching me fight Kodachi? Kodachi had that ribbon of hers with a TK field extended around it so that it would slice through damn near anything."

"I remember, Nabiki was off making bets, Akane was yelling at you for getting P-chan involved in the match, and Shampoo had lessons with that amazon sensei of hers, Mrs Tofu."

"Yeah, and here Shampoo had gotten all shy and demure on me, so that I didn't know what to think of how she felt about me, and then goes off to see her 'teacher of amazon ways' during an important fight."

Ucchan's:
Still straining to hold Akane back, Shampoo growled. "Shampoo knew should have glomped Ranma, but NOOOOO Shampoo have to be proper Japanese girl and not do Amazon heritage. Shampoo have kitten fit later."

Rooftop:

"Subtle doesn't do it for you, huh?" Ryouga smiled. "Yeah, I expect that's one thing we've got in common. After all, with all the studying and being dragged through various dimensions, we're in the same boat as far as social skills are concerned. If we can't fight it we're kinda at a loss how to handle the situation."

"Yeah, yeah." Ranma nodded. "Maybe if I weren't a mage, I could be more comfortable with my feelings and such."

"Well then," Ryouga sighed. "That leaves Ukyou, Kasumi, and Nabiki, doesn't it?"

"Nabs found out what was going on with Ukyou. She's got the blood of a dragon in her family tree, you know the Chinese legends of the daughter of a dragon and a noble warrior who marries her, only to have said daughter forced to return to the dragon's lair under the sea?"

"Kuonji?"

"Yup. Mind you, Ukyou is nice, affectionate, and has a good level of magic resistance. Still she's got no magical or esper skills to speak of, and she didn't attend my match with Kodachi either, just attended some local business manager's meeting."

Ucchan's:

"He didn't choose me?" There was a spattering noise as Ukyou's tears hit the hot metal grill. "Baka."

Rooftop:

"Nabiki? Give me a break. You're choosing someone who sold you out to Kuno?"

"You should have seen her when she came to apologize. She looked so...vulnerable, so nice and, well, cute. I don't know, she can also be so mercenary and cold and calculating at times. At times like that the Triclops seems more human."

Ucchan's:

"I'm not THAT bad, am I?"

Everyone looked at Nabiki and nodded.

"Oh my," said Nabiki with a groan.

Rooftop:

"But the fact remains that she HAS sold me out, and not just for the sake of the Dojo or her family."

"Oh?"

"You really think it's a coincidence that she got a new CD player after selling Kuno pictures of his 'pig-tailed goddess' sleeping half-nude? Originally I thought she was just keeping the household afloat."

Ucchan's:

"...but it was a CD player AND TWO CDs."

Ukyou made an unflattering comment about Genma being a second-rate Nabiki.

Rooftop:

"That leaves..."

"Kasumi. Mind you, the Triclops scares the CRAP out of me. Kasumi, though, Kasumi is nice. I might be able to put HER in charge of the Triclops instead of the other way around. Tricky, but it's possible. Still, I've got to give my answer tomorrow, and it looks like Kasumi is the only one who won't betray or abandon me."

"What could change your mind overnight? Maybe if one of them seduced you?"

"Yeah." Ranma looked at the sky for a moment.

Ucchan's:

The door to the empty cafe swings shut. Ukyou runs back to put the "Closed" sign up.

Rooftop:

"Like THAT could happen. Nah, that'd just freak me out."

---------------------------

Cologne watched her carefully laid plans get ripped up and thrown to the winds. "How did this happen?"

"You should know that by now, my dear." An equally short figure moved out of the shadows.

"Happi," Cologne snarled. "I should have known."

"Simple enough to manufacture crises for both the Kuonji woman and Shampoo, diverting them at a time when Ranma had himself been manipulated to think the threat of the Kodachi woman far more severe than it was. Her minor tricks of the AT field and her trick weaponry proved no match for Ranma. This way the Tendo daughters had a clear shot at the boy, even if it was not the one I'd originally chosen."

"You WANTED an Akane-Ranma match? He would not have survived the year!"

"Ranma may not have survived such a relationship, but his survival was not my goal anyway. The children that would have resulted from that union would have their mother's strength and vitality, as well as Ranma's gift for magic and talent for survival. It may still work out."

"Happi, I think you've finally flipped out."

"Au contraire, Cologne." Happosai flipped out his own tarot deck. "How do you build a future?"

He drew a card. "Le Force, Akane." Another card. "Le Bataleur, the mage- Ranma. Strength of arm and strength of will, m'dear."

Cologne shook her head and drew two cards of her own. "He has made his choice. But will it be the Triclops?" She flicked the card showing a demon over. "Or will it be Kasumi that he ends up with?" Another card was flipped, showing the Ace Of Cups.

"We shall see, shall we not?" Happosai sighed. "Now that we got all the gloom and doom stuff done, you got any of that good Amazon moonshine?"

"Hmph. I've got a bottle here that'll peel the skin off a basilisk. It's been a long time, Happi."

"Hotcha!"

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Kasumi: "In the next episode of Ranma 1/2: The Art, we see... Oh my. Shampoo, what were you doing in Ranma's bedroom? Nabiki, I really don't think that's appropriate behavior. Oh my, Ukyou what do you mean there's a link between our souls?

"The next episode is: 8 is way too damn much.

"We'll see you there, bye bye!"