Disclaimer: If you're poor and you know it write FanFiction/ If you're poor and you know it write FanFiction/ If you're poor and you know and you really don't want to get sued/ If you're poor and you know it write FanFiction (like me!)
Real Disclaimer: Don't own any of them, am not making money, am not stealing them cause i like Rumiko Takahashi as a writer and artist long may she pen.
Sukuu to Chie
by Prospero Hibiki
hell_frost@hotmail.com
Chapter 3: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry...
Ranma stalked through the streets of Nerima in a slightly foul mood. While what he had said to his mother was true, he also had to acknowledge that she had a good point. It wasn't fair to hide the truth from people. He didn't like lying to people, and he wasn't in the strictest sense of the word. But he remembered a statement he had been told about lies while in the United States. If he was lying to people it was a lie of omission. Still he couldn't think of any way that it could hurt anyone, and revealing that he was rich would only attract undue attention to himself and his mother. And he would do anything and everything in his power to protect his mother.
Still he needed to take care of things and no matter what happened he was going to draw some attention to himself if he wanted to end things correctly. Of course this brought his mind back around to the girl he had wanted to talk to at school that morning. He shook his head angrily. There wasn't anything he could think of that would restore Ukyo's honor. As he had told his mother he couldn't see how marrying her would resolve anything if it wasn't out of love. But there wasn't anything else he could do. He wasn't used to dealing with this type of thing. He was a great fighter and so would rather be in a fight to the death rather than try to figure out impossible situations.
His mental processes skidded to a halt for a brief second before running off in another direction. Maybe death was the answer. It wasn't a solution that particularly pleased him, but it was an option that was open to him. Seppuku might not be called for in this situation, but perhaps it would be wiser to have Ukyo decide if she wanted his life in order to make up for everything. Still he decided that if she wanted his life she could have it.
He was so occupied with his thoughts that he wasn't paying attention to where he was going and ran into someone when he turned a corner. Seeing that the person was about to fall his hands shot out and held her up. Despite that fact she was wearing fairly androgynous clothing he knew she was a girl because … well he just knew. Looking at her face he realized that she was about his age, although she carried herself as if she were much older. He quickly set her properly on her feet.
"Sorry, miss. I should have been watching where I was going."
She waved away his apologies. "That's okay. I'm just glad you caught me." She had a slight accent that he knew he'd heard before, but couldn't quite place.
"It was the least I could do. I always try to keep the pretty girls from getting hurt." It was rather easy for him to say it because he thought she was quite attractive even if her clothes weren't meant to show off her figure. He couldn't understand why this seemed to annoy her though.
"Of all the arrogant things to say!" She reached up with her hand and slapped him.
Ranma immediately knew that he had made a mistake by phrasing it as he had, but he couldn't seem to figure out which part of it had been wrong. He did tend to run into pretty girls quite often and tended to look out for them. And she certainly fit into both of those categories even if she didn't dress like it. Rubbing his stinging cheek he realized that she was glaring at him. "Ummm, sorry?"
She looked slightly repentant. "I'm sorry, it's just that you ran into me at a bad time."
"It's alright. My timing has been off all day now. Why should now be any different?" He smiled slightly and decided that it would be best to just walk away. "I hope your day goes better." Turning he went deeper into the retail district of the town, his mind already thinking about what he needed to do to prepare for his confrontation tomorrow.
He definitely needed to call the office and get some things out of the way. He reached into his pocket pull out his cell phone only to realize that he didn't have it on him, having put it into his school bag, which he had left at home. Looking around he spotted a phone booth across the street from a clothing store.
It took a great deal longer than he had originally thought to arrange for the necessary paperwork to be sent over to his house, mostly because of the difficulty of convincing people to take him seriously. But once that was taken care of exercising his control of the company was rather simple. It was the second phone call that he knew was going to give him the most trouble. He didn't know what he was going to tell his mother but he knew that if he went home now he'd spend the entire night arguing with her instead of enjoying what could be his last night.
He dialed the number to his house, and then redialed it because he had made a mistake in his nervousness. "Hello?"
"Mom?"
"Oh, it's you Ranma. What time do you think you'll be home so I know when to start dinner?"
He winced slightly. "I won't be home till late, mother. There will be a man from the office stopping by with some paperwork for me later."
She seemed slightly puzzled over the phone. "Okay I'll look out for him. But something tells me you didn't just call to tell me that. What's wrong?"
"I found a solution to the problem with Ukyo. But for some reason I don't think you're going to like it."
Ranma could almost imagine a small frown crossing her face. "Tell me, my son."
"I'm going to turn my fate over to her. If she wants it my life is forfeit." As he'd expected he needed to hold the phone away from his ear.
"No! I won't allow it! I forbid you to do that."
"As the current head of the Saotome clan I have so decided." He hated to do that to his mother, but he didn't have any choice.
He could hear some soft sobbing coming from over the line. "As you wish, my son. At what time can I expect you home tonight?"
This time it was Ranma's voice that faltered. "I … I don't know. Late. I don't know the exact time. I'm not going to do it tonight, mother." He heard her minute sigh of relief. "I just want to live for tonight. It's been so long since I've had a real chance to have fun, and this might be the last chance I get. I'm going to talk to Ukyo tomorrow. One way or another things will be over by this time tomorrow."
"What are you planning to do tonight?"
"I have no idea. Maybe…" He looked around to come up with something, anything that he could do. And then he saw it. Or rather her. It was the same girl from before standing across the street looking into the window of the clothing boutique. She was staring at an emerald evening gown that he personally thought would look rather stunning on her. "… Maybe I'll go out on a date with a beautiful girl."
"What?"
"I'm sorry mom. I gotta go. We'll talk when I get home." He saw that the girl was starting to walk away.
"We certainly will."
Dashing out the door not even caring about the change that was returned to him he ran over to the girl. Trying to be as quiet as possible he spoke. "Why didn't you go into the store? I think that dress would suit you rather well."
She jumped slightly clearly startled by her reaction and she spun around falling into a defensive stance almost instinctively. "Oh, it's you again. What do you want?"
"I was just curious why you didn't at least try the dress on."
She shrugged. "It's so far outside my budget that it's …." It looked like she was finding it had to think of a suitably impossible description.
"Did you like the dress?"
"It was pretty. But I don't think I could wear anything like that." She sounded almost wistful.
His mind made up, Ranma grabbed her hand and dragged her back and into the store.
"What are you doing?!"
Ignoring her for a brief moment he approached one of the salesladies. "We'd like to take a look at that dress in the window, please."
"No!"
He turned to her once again. "Why not?" He looked at the dress once again. "It'd look good on you."
"I can't possibly afford that!"
"I didn't say anything about you buying it. We're only going to look at it for the moment." He looked back at the window. "Did you like the black one better?" Ranma hoped she didn't because it seemed a little off to him somehow.
"No, I much rather try on the green one …Wait a second here I didn't say that I'd try it on." Her protests were most politely ignored by the staff who were hustling her away into a changing room.
Nodding sagely he smirked when he turned to face one of the other ladies. "Now do you have anything for me?" He watched her eyes light up at the thought of the commission.
~~~
About ten minutes later she stepped out of the dressing room and he knew that he had been right about her being absolutely stunning. The fact that she was blushing rather heavily only added to her beauty.
"Does it fit?" he asked already knowing the answer.
"Yes, it does."
Ranma turned and nodded to the salesperson that had helped him pick out the green silk shirt he now wore. It was much like his usual one except there were traces of designs done in gold thread throughout. That done he walked over to the girl. "So is there an amusement park around here?"
"What?"
~~~
"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow I die." Ranma wasn't even aware that he had said the phrase that had been running through his head all evening, out loud.
"I'm sorry?" the girl asked.
He still hadn't asked her of her name, because he didn't want to know. It would put too much strain on the idea of the entire outing. Still she deserved an answer, as it had been part of the deal. "I didn't tell you why I wanted to go to an amusement park, did I?" It was a rhetorical question because he knew he hadn't. "I've never been to one before and it's something that I thought I should do before I die."
"You're talking as if you intend to kill yourself tomorrow. I'm not sure I like that." She edged away from him slightly.
"I don't know if what I'm going to do could be considered suicide. Maybe it could. But it's the only way I can think of to restore a friend's honor, and I have to take it. That might mean I have to die tomorrow, but it's kind of funny really. I don't mind right now." He stared out the window of the Ferris wheel for several minutes before she broke the silence.
"Why not?"
"Hmmmm?"
"Why doesn't it bother you? Dying, I mean."
Ranma shrugged. "Dying bothers me a lot really. But that's not what I meant. I guess what I meant to say is that I don't mind dying tomorrow. When I first thought of doing what I'll do tomorrow, I thought of all the things I hadn't done, and I started to have regrets."
"And you don't now?"
He chuckled at her expression. "Oh I have tons of regrets still. I think I always will. But everyone has regrets. It's just that talking to you tonight has reminded me of all the things I have done with my life. I remember walking though Southeast Asia while some of the people around me succumb to illness. One grabbed my shirt on his final night and whispered to me, 'Let us eat, drink and be merry, my friend, for tomorrow I'll die.' And we did, and he did, and now I finally understand."
"That's a rather morbid tale." She shuddered slightly, but whether it was from horror of the stopping of the Ferris wheel he didn't know.
"But it's true. That was the deal. No names, but only the truth."
"Truth. I don't know what that is anymore." She snorted. "I still don't know why I agreed to this in the first place." She waved her hand around to indicate everything from the amusement park to the new dress she was wearing.
"Neither do I." Ranma stood up and took her hand leading her out of the car. "Where to next?" He made no attempt to release her hand, and this time she didn't shake his off.
"How about the Mirror Maze?"
He looked where she was pointing and could see part of the sign. "Why not?"
~~~
It was a while before they had been to enough of the attractions that they decided a break was in order. They sat at a café in a more subdued part of the park, Ranma intercepting all of her attempts to pay for herself.
"It's attitudes like that make women seem like objects in this society."
"Oh? How so?" Ranma was truly interested in hearing about this.
"It's always assumed that the men should pay the bills and that the women shouldn't. And because the men pay the bills the women should be more submissive. It seems like everywhere you go women have less power than men." She paused for a moment while Ranma started to choke on his hot chocolate. "What's wrong with you?"
He smiled once he had recovered. "I think you'd fit in perfectly with the Joketsuzoku."
"What does that mean?" He could see her temper was rising.
"Nothing much really unless you know that the Joketsuzoku are known as the Chinese Amazons." Seeing her blank look he elaborated. "Their society is completely run by the women."
This time it was her turn to smirk. "Finally an enlightened people."
Ranma nodded. "Oh, I agree. But not for the same reasons as you obviously do. I think they are enlightened because their culture has existed for over three thousand years despite being surrounded by some of the most dangerous nations to ever exist. Then again I might be biased because I am a part of their tribe."
"What?"
"I was accepted as an honorary member of the tribe when I rescued one of their children from a tiger."
"I don't believe you."
"It's true. I have this way with big cats. They always seem to like following me around for some reason. I think it's because they sense …" He shuddered slightly. Although he had been cured of the Neko-ken, thinking about the training he had gone through was still fairly unpleasant. "…nevermind. It's not important."
"I thought we were supposed to tell the truth? It seems to be very important."
"It's not really important. It's just not something I like to think about."
She didn't look convinced, but seemed willing to let it slide. "I suppose I can accept that. But tell me this. Why did you insist on paying the check if you are a part of a society that thinks men are inferior to women?"
"Simple really. I don't often spend this much money in a month and I wanted to find out what it's like."
"That seems…strange."
"I never said I wasn't strange."
"No you certainly didn't."
Real Disclaimer: Don't own any of them, am not making money, am not stealing them cause i like Rumiko Takahashi as a writer and artist long may she pen.
Sukuu to Chie
by Prospero Hibiki
hell_frost@hotmail.com
Chapter 3: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry...
Ranma stalked through the streets of Nerima in a slightly foul mood. While what he had said to his mother was true, he also had to acknowledge that she had a good point. It wasn't fair to hide the truth from people. He didn't like lying to people, and he wasn't in the strictest sense of the word. But he remembered a statement he had been told about lies while in the United States. If he was lying to people it was a lie of omission. Still he couldn't think of any way that it could hurt anyone, and revealing that he was rich would only attract undue attention to himself and his mother. And he would do anything and everything in his power to protect his mother.
Still he needed to take care of things and no matter what happened he was going to draw some attention to himself if he wanted to end things correctly. Of course this brought his mind back around to the girl he had wanted to talk to at school that morning. He shook his head angrily. There wasn't anything he could think of that would restore Ukyo's honor. As he had told his mother he couldn't see how marrying her would resolve anything if it wasn't out of love. But there wasn't anything else he could do. He wasn't used to dealing with this type of thing. He was a great fighter and so would rather be in a fight to the death rather than try to figure out impossible situations.
His mental processes skidded to a halt for a brief second before running off in another direction. Maybe death was the answer. It wasn't a solution that particularly pleased him, but it was an option that was open to him. Seppuku might not be called for in this situation, but perhaps it would be wiser to have Ukyo decide if she wanted his life in order to make up for everything. Still he decided that if she wanted his life she could have it.
He was so occupied with his thoughts that he wasn't paying attention to where he was going and ran into someone when he turned a corner. Seeing that the person was about to fall his hands shot out and held her up. Despite that fact she was wearing fairly androgynous clothing he knew she was a girl because … well he just knew. Looking at her face he realized that she was about his age, although she carried herself as if she were much older. He quickly set her properly on her feet.
"Sorry, miss. I should have been watching where I was going."
She waved away his apologies. "That's okay. I'm just glad you caught me." She had a slight accent that he knew he'd heard before, but couldn't quite place.
"It was the least I could do. I always try to keep the pretty girls from getting hurt." It was rather easy for him to say it because he thought she was quite attractive even if her clothes weren't meant to show off her figure. He couldn't understand why this seemed to annoy her though.
"Of all the arrogant things to say!" She reached up with her hand and slapped him.
Ranma immediately knew that he had made a mistake by phrasing it as he had, but he couldn't seem to figure out which part of it had been wrong. He did tend to run into pretty girls quite often and tended to look out for them. And she certainly fit into both of those categories even if she didn't dress like it. Rubbing his stinging cheek he realized that she was glaring at him. "Ummm, sorry?"
She looked slightly repentant. "I'm sorry, it's just that you ran into me at a bad time."
"It's alright. My timing has been off all day now. Why should now be any different?" He smiled slightly and decided that it would be best to just walk away. "I hope your day goes better." Turning he went deeper into the retail district of the town, his mind already thinking about what he needed to do to prepare for his confrontation tomorrow.
He definitely needed to call the office and get some things out of the way. He reached into his pocket pull out his cell phone only to realize that he didn't have it on him, having put it into his school bag, which he had left at home. Looking around he spotted a phone booth across the street from a clothing store.
It took a great deal longer than he had originally thought to arrange for the necessary paperwork to be sent over to his house, mostly because of the difficulty of convincing people to take him seriously. But once that was taken care of exercising his control of the company was rather simple. It was the second phone call that he knew was going to give him the most trouble. He didn't know what he was going to tell his mother but he knew that if he went home now he'd spend the entire night arguing with her instead of enjoying what could be his last night.
He dialed the number to his house, and then redialed it because he had made a mistake in his nervousness. "Hello?"
"Mom?"
"Oh, it's you Ranma. What time do you think you'll be home so I know when to start dinner?"
He winced slightly. "I won't be home till late, mother. There will be a man from the office stopping by with some paperwork for me later."
She seemed slightly puzzled over the phone. "Okay I'll look out for him. But something tells me you didn't just call to tell me that. What's wrong?"
"I found a solution to the problem with Ukyo. But for some reason I don't think you're going to like it."
Ranma could almost imagine a small frown crossing her face. "Tell me, my son."
"I'm going to turn my fate over to her. If she wants it my life is forfeit." As he'd expected he needed to hold the phone away from his ear.
"No! I won't allow it! I forbid you to do that."
"As the current head of the Saotome clan I have so decided." He hated to do that to his mother, but he didn't have any choice.
He could hear some soft sobbing coming from over the line. "As you wish, my son. At what time can I expect you home tonight?"
This time it was Ranma's voice that faltered. "I … I don't know. Late. I don't know the exact time. I'm not going to do it tonight, mother." He heard her minute sigh of relief. "I just want to live for tonight. It's been so long since I've had a real chance to have fun, and this might be the last chance I get. I'm going to talk to Ukyo tomorrow. One way or another things will be over by this time tomorrow."
"What are you planning to do tonight?"
"I have no idea. Maybe…" He looked around to come up with something, anything that he could do. And then he saw it. Or rather her. It was the same girl from before standing across the street looking into the window of the clothing boutique. She was staring at an emerald evening gown that he personally thought would look rather stunning on her. "… Maybe I'll go out on a date with a beautiful girl."
"What?"
"I'm sorry mom. I gotta go. We'll talk when I get home." He saw that the girl was starting to walk away.
"We certainly will."
Dashing out the door not even caring about the change that was returned to him he ran over to the girl. Trying to be as quiet as possible he spoke. "Why didn't you go into the store? I think that dress would suit you rather well."
She jumped slightly clearly startled by her reaction and she spun around falling into a defensive stance almost instinctively. "Oh, it's you again. What do you want?"
"I was just curious why you didn't at least try the dress on."
She shrugged. "It's so far outside my budget that it's …." It looked like she was finding it had to think of a suitably impossible description.
"Did you like the dress?"
"It was pretty. But I don't think I could wear anything like that." She sounded almost wistful.
His mind made up, Ranma grabbed her hand and dragged her back and into the store.
"What are you doing?!"
Ignoring her for a brief moment he approached one of the salesladies. "We'd like to take a look at that dress in the window, please."
"No!"
He turned to her once again. "Why not?" He looked at the dress once again. "It'd look good on you."
"I can't possibly afford that!"
"I didn't say anything about you buying it. We're only going to look at it for the moment." He looked back at the window. "Did you like the black one better?" Ranma hoped she didn't because it seemed a little off to him somehow.
"No, I much rather try on the green one …Wait a second here I didn't say that I'd try it on." Her protests were most politely ignored by the staff who were hustling her away into a changing room.
Nodding sagely he smirked when he turned to face one of the other ladies. "Now do you have anything for me?" He watched her eyes light up at the thought of the commission.
~~~
About ten minutes later she stepped out of the dressing room and he knew that he had been right about her being absolutely stunning. The fact that she was blushing rather heavily only added to her beauty.
"Does it fit?" he asked already knowing the answer.
"Yes, it does."
Ranma turned and nodded to the salesperson that had helped him pick out the green silk shirt he now wore. It was much like his usual one except there were traces of designs done in gold thread throughout. That done he walked over to the girl. "So is there an amusement park around here?"
"What?"
~~~
"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow I die." Ranma wasn't even aware that he had said the phrase that had been running through his head all evening, out loud.
"I'm sorry?" the girl asked.
He still hadn't asked her of her name, because he didn't want to know. It would put too much strain on the idea of the entire outing. Still she deserved an answer, as it had been part of the deal. "I didn't tell you why I wanted to go to an amusement park, did I?" It was a rhetorical question because he knew he hadn't. "I've never been to one before and it's something that I thought I should do before I die."
"You're talking as if you intend to kill yourself tomorrow. I'm not sure I like that." She edged away from him slightly.
"I don't know if what I'm going to do could be considered suicide. Maybe it could. But it's the only way I can think of to restore a friend's honor, and I have to take it. That might mean I have to die tomorrow, but it's kind of funny really. I don't mind right now." He stared out the window of the Ferris wheel for several minutes before she broke the silence.
"Why not?"
"Hmmmm?"
"Why doesn't it bother you? Dying, I mean."
Ranma shrugged. "Dying bothers me a lot really. But that's not what I meant. I guess what I meant to say is that I don't mind dying tomorrow. When I first thought of doing what I'll do tomorrow, I thought of all the things I hadn't done, and I started to have regrets."
"And you don't now?"
He chuckled at her expression. "Oh I have tons of regrets still. I think I always will. But everyone has regrets. It's just that talking to you tonight has reminded me of all the things I have done with my life. I remember walking though Southeast Asia while some of the people around me succumb to illness. One grabbed my shirt on his final night and whispered to me, 'Let us eat, drink and be merry, my friend, for tomorrow I'll die.' And we did, and he did, and now I finally understand."
"That's a rather morbid tale." She shuddered slightly, but whether it was from horror of the stopping of the Ferris wheel he didn't know.
"But it's true. That was the deal. No names, but only the truth."
"Truth. I don't know what that is anymore." She snorted. "I still don't know why I agreed to this in the first place." She waved her hand around to indicate everything from the amusement park to the new dress she was wearing.
"Neither do I." Ranma stood up and took her hand leading her out of the car. "Where to next?" He made no attempt to release her hand, and this time she didn't shake his off.
"How about the Mirror Maze?"
He looked where she was pointing and could see part of the sign. "Why not?"
~~~
It was a while before they had been to enough of the attractions that they decided a break was in order. They sat at a café in a more subdued part of the park, Ranma intercepting all of her attempts to pay for herself.
"It's attitudes like that make women seem like objects in this society."
"Oh? How so?" Ranma was truly interested in hearing about this.
"It's always assumed that the men should pay the bills and that the women shouldn't. And because the men pay the bills the women should be more submissive. It seems like everywhere you go women have less power than men." She paused for a moment while Ranma started to choke on his hot chocolate. "What's wrong with you?"
He smiled once he had recovered. "I think you'd fit in perfectly with the Joketsuzoku."
"What does that mean?" He could see her temper was rising.
"Nothing much really unless you know that the Joketsuzoku are known as the Chinese Amazons." Seeing her blank look he elaborated. "Their society is completely run by the women."
This time it was her turn to smirk. "Finally an enlightened people."
Ranma nodded. "Oh, I agree. But not for the same reasons as you obviously do. I think they are enlightened because their culture has existed for over three thousand years despite being surrounded by some of the most dangerous nations to ever exist. Then again I might be biased because I am a part of their tribe."
"What?"
"I was accepted as an honorary member of the tribe when I rescued one of their children from a tiger."
"I don't believe you."
"It's true. I have this way with big cats. They always seem to like following me around for some reason. I think it's because they sense …" He shuddered slightly. Although he had been cured of the Neko-ken, thinking about the training he had gone through was still fairly unpleasant. "…nevermind. It's not important."
"I thought we were supposed to tell the truth? It seems to be very important."
"It's not really important. It's just not something I like to think about."
She didn't look convinced, but seemed willing to let it slide. "I suppose I can accept that. But tell me this. Why did you insist on paying the check if you are a part of a society that thinks men are inferior to women?"
"Simple really. I don't often spend this much money in a month and I wanted to find out what it's like."
"That seems…strange."
"I never said I wasn't strange."
"No you certainly didn't."