Ch. 7 Just Desserts
Ranma was feeling more than a bit uneasy as he walked home to the Tendos' for what could be the last time. He was a remarkably adaptable person. Having experienced a lot of chaos in his life, Ranma had become accustomed to rapid changes in circumstances and new challenges. In fact, he thrived on them, but with the amount of changes in the last several days even his system couldn't take many more shocks. Plus, when he'd left school, Sessho- maru had been talking about academics and tutors and tailoring things to his learning style. It was almost too much for his mind to fathom having a former blood enemy talk about improving his grades.
Not that he, as Inu-Yasha, hadn't always wanted to be close to his brother. He was family, damn it, and it hurt that he didn't care. Now that he had a chance to be close to his - er - father, it seemed so surreal. Could he really trust him? As Ranma he had learned, even more than as Inu-Yasha, that everybody had an ulterior motive, but Ranma's acute danger sense just wasn't reacting to his former brother. In fact, he felt peace.
By now he had reached the front gate of the Tendo dojo. He took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy.
* * * *
"I'm telling you Tendo, we cannot allow the future of the Anything Goes School to be jeopardized. Even if it means going to the master we must get Ranma back."
"Yes, of course, Genma my friend. Sacrifices will need to be made. We must get Ranma and Akane married before this infiltrator tries to take the boy away somewhere. It's Soun . . ."
"And Genma's . . ."
"Operation dumbass," Ranma finished for them, stepping into the room.
"Ranma my boy, you . . ."
"I wouldn't try nothing if I were you. My father makes Saffron look like a pansy. Not that it will stop you of course, just giving you fair warning."
"But now that you're here," Soun pleaded, "we can . . ."
"And I'm not marrying Akane. We might have been able to have something, but that notion has been bashed, poisoned and kicked out of me. She don't trust me. Besides, I have someone else."
"Don't think you can get away with leaving that easily, Saotome," Nabiki said sticking her head into the door. "You forget the dept you owe me."
Ranma tosses her a large wad of bills. "Here, this is from my father. He said something about encouraging the entrepreneurs of the rising generation."
Nabiki eyed the wad of cash and grunted in appreciation. "This about covers the debt, but don't think this lets you off the hook with my family. Your mother's paid me good money to research into this guys claim."
"He thought something like that might happen. Here's his card," Ranma said as he flicks a stiff piece of paper at her.
Nabiki gaped at the "West Corp." logo. This was going to take more work than she thought. She'd kept a list of damages and cost since the Saotome's had come. If this guy was who she thought he was she was going to milk this for everything it was worth.
"The number there is for his lawyers," Ranma said, reading the greed written plainly across her face. "Good luck," he smirked, and proceeded to walk up the stairs to his room.
* * * *
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Sessho-maru was making sure a couple of old gnomes wouldn't give Ranma further trouble. First the panty thief.
Happosai was up to his usual tricks, this time raiding the women's locker room of a local bath house. "My pretties! Now don't any of you be jealous, I shall love and take care of all of you," he murmured rubbing his cheek on a white lacy bra in his hand.
A shadow crossed the light and the old pervert glimpsed a shapely face and platinum hair out of the corner of his eye. "Hatcha!" he leaped toward the figure when mid flight he found a hand wrapped around his throat. That was a surprise, very few people were that fast. He looked up at the hand's owner and realized his mistake. Demon, and male at that. "Let go of me, I didn't do nothing I tell you!"
"I an Sessho-maru, Lord of the Western Realm."
Happosai went sheet white. "Look here, I was just playing with a few minor conjuring spells . . ."
"I am not here to discuss your dabbling in the occult. I am here to directly address the insult you have made to my family." Sessho-maru brought Happosai closer till the were eye to eye.
"Insult?" Happosai asked, trying not to squirm, "Great lord, I assure you, if I touched any of your women, I didn't know . . ."
"I could care less for such things. I am speaking of your conduct towards my son."
"Your son?". Happosai made a disgusted face. "I would never touch a man."
"I'm talking," Sessho-maru tightened his grip, "about Ramna."
"Oh no," Happosai squinted his eyes shut. This was going to hurt.
* * * *
When Akane arrived home she could hear the loud clatter of pots and pans in the kitchen. She had gone with her friends to the mall, trying to let off some steam because 'that jerk' hadn't come back to class. No doubt hanging out with that Amazon floozy Shampoo, since Ukyo had still been in class.
"Hey Kasumi," Akane inquired, stepping into the kitchen, "why are you preparing all this food?"
"Didn't you hear, Akane?" Nabiki said poking her nose into the kitchen (she had been hovering, waiting for her sister's return). "Genma isn't Ranma's father. His real father is some powerful demon who has come to take him away."
Weird. Then again, with Ranma, they'd seen weirder. "When did this happen?"
"This morning, I'm afraid," Kasumi said solemnly.
"Well, don't worry about Ranma. He'll just defeat this guy and . . ."
"But Akane, Ranma wants to go. In fact, he even called off the engagement with Daddy and Mr. Saotome.
"He what?" Anger fought with hurt and, in a classic Akane defense mechanism, anger won. "RAANMAA!"
"Oh my."
As Akane stomped away, Nabiki grinned maliciously. That would teach him to treat her lightly. Now to 'invite' the rest of the crew to dinner.
Upstairs, Ranma heard the short-haired girl's shout and rolled his eyes. Switching to hanyou form, he gathered up his finished pack and exited the guest room. Akane was half way up the stairs in her tirade when he came out. Startled by his appearance, she froze, giving him enough time to vault the stairs down to the main floor. Fuming anew, Akane turned around and stomped down after him. No matter what he looked like, he was still Ranma, and she could take care of him anytime she felt like it.
Nabiki was peering into the main room with a camera. Close enough to catch all the action, yet far enough away to seem uninvolved. "Interesting new look," she stated with a predatory smile.
"Ranma, how dare your make decisions concerning my future without consulting me!"
Ranma rolled his eyes. Usually Akane's fits of temper left him feeling angry or guilty. Not this time. Now he had someone to compare her to. Kagome, although she would get angry and hit him sometimes, would also apologize when she was wrong. She would hug him when she was afraid, and she had trusted him to take care of her. In comparison, Akane fell as flat as her chest (heh).
"Pay attention to me!" Akane brought out mallet-sama and swung at him as hard as she could, then gasped as the mallet stopped mid-air.
Tugging it free from her grasp, Ranma proceeded to smash the instrument into sawdust.
As Akane stood aghast, Nabiki thought furiously. "That is definitely a good look on you Ranma, however, I wonder how much better you'd look in your female form?"
Ranma didn't even try to dodge the glass of water. Blinking the droplets from his eyelashes and shaking the water out of his hair, he smirked. In all that had happened in the last couple of days, he'd almost forgotten. "My youkai half cured the curse."
Nabiki seethed, then began to take pictures of him. Ranma calmly whisked the camera from her hands and crumpled it up.
"Ranma, how dare you do that to my sister!"
"Your going to pay for that, Saotome."
"Make me," he replied, baring his fangs. "And it's West now."
Nabiki quickly exited, her hands clenching and unclenching.
"Just you wait, you jerk." Akane stomped back to the kitchen.
"Kasumi, can I help fix dinner?"
"No Akane, I'd rather Ranma be able to eat his last meal with us."
Akane's system was once again in shock. Kasumi - berated her? Insulted her cooking? Feeling a bit numb, Akane went up to her room to think.
As she entered her room, she heard a familiar squeal. "P-chan, is that you? Oh, P-chan." Akane picked up her pet pig and hugged him to her chest. "You'll never believe what that jerk, Ranma, has done now. P- chan's squeal now became indignant as he swiveled his ears forward, listening intently to a now sobbing Akane.
* * * *
"Hey Kasumi," Ranma called, once again in human form, "I'm going out for some fresh air. Do you need anything?"
"No, thank you. I'm just fine Ranma-kun."
"Ok." Ranma left the house and started down the street. He hadn't gotten far when he heard a familiar cry.
"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!"
Ranma smirked as Ryoga's punch whistled by ruffling his hair. "Sorry, no one here by that name. My name is Ranma West."
"I know about your sordid background, spawn of demons!"
"Ah, listening in again in Akane's room as P-chan were we?" Ranma stated, as he continued to nimbly dodge all of Ryoga's swings.
"Shut up oni! I knew you cheated in our fights somehow all these years. For this insult and for all the unhappiness you have caused for me and for Akane I will make you pay."
"You know, I always did wonder about those teeth of yours, fang boy. Got a touch of demon blood in your background?"
"How dare you associate me with your own evil! All this time you've been stringing Akane along, probably to use her as a virgin in some unholy rite!"
"You know what, Ryoga," Ranma stated while changing into his hanyo form, "you bore me." Sniff, sniff sniff. "You smell funny. You smell," Ranma's now golden eyes widened, "like pork!".
"Ranma, how dare you . . . "
Ranma beared his fangs and licked his lips, slinking toward Ryoga. "I wonder what you taste like."
Ryoga started to look nervous and unconsciously backed away a step. "Get away from me you demon half-breed!"
"Humm, raw, roasted, barbaqued . . "
"You won't lay a hand on me." Ryoga goes in for the power swing and is knocked to the ground, stunned, by Ranma's much more powerful punch.
"Oh look Ryoga, now I'm faster and stronger than you." Ranma stated pinning the lost boy to the ground.
Ryoga struggled, He's too strong. No, no I can't let him beat me.
"A light workout, but I still worked up an appetite," slited golden eyes stare down at Ryoga, "and you know how I eat."
Ryoga fainted and Ranma got up and walked away chuckling, looking rather pleased with himself.
Authors note: Well, I had to cut this chapter in half, it was just getting way to long. If you like this story I recommend "Where I belong". It's a Ranma/Kenshin crossover by Unseen Watcher (listed in the Kenshin section) and it's way better. Thanks for reading.
Ranma was feeling more than a bit uneasy as he walked home to the Tendos' for what could be the last time. He was a remarkably adaptable person. Having experienced a lot of chaos in his life, Ranma had become accustomed to rapid changes in circumstances and new challenges. In fact, he thrived on them, but with the amount of changes in the last several days even his system couldn't take many more shocks. Plus, when he'd left school, Sessho- maru had been talking about academics and tutors and tailoring things to his learning style. It was almost too much for his mind to fathom having a former blood enemy talk about improving his grades.
Not that he, as Inu-Yasha, hadn't always wanted to be close to his brother. He was family, damn it, and it hurt that he didn't care. Now that he had a chance to be close to his - er - father, it seemed so surreal. Could he really trust him? As Ranma he had learned, even more than as Inu-Yasha, that everybody had an ulterior motive, but Ranma's acute danger sense just wasn't reacting to his former brother. In fact, he felt peace.
By now he had reached the front gate of the Tendo dojo. He took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy.
* * * *
"I'm telling you Tendo, we cannot allow the future of the Anything Goes School to be jeopardized. Even if it means going to the master we must get Ranma back."
"Yes, of course, Genma my friend. Sacrifices will need to be made. We must get Ranma and Akane married before this infiltrator tries to take the boy away somewhere. It's Soun . . ."
"And Genma's . . ."
"Operation dumbass," Ranma finished for them, stepping into the room.
"Ranma my boy, you . . ."
"I wouldn't try nothing if I were you. My father makes Saffron look like a pansy. Not that it will stop you of course, just giving you fair warning."
"But now that you're here," Soun pleaded, "we can . . ."
"And I'm not marrying Akane. We might have been able to have something, but that notion has been bashed, poisoned and kicked out of me. She don't trust me. Besides, I have someone else."
"Don't think you can get away with leaving that easily, Saotome," Nabiki said sticking her head into the door. "You forget the dept you owe me."
Ranma tosses her a large wad of bills. "Here, this is from my father. He said something about encouraging the entrepreneurs of the rising generation."
Nabiki eyed the wad of cash and grunted in appreciation. "This about covers the debt, but don't think this lets you off the hook with my family. Your mother's paid me good money to research into this guys claim."
"He thought something like that might happen. Here's his card," Ranma said as he flicks a stiff piece of paper at her.
Nabiki gaped at the "West Corp." logo. This was going to take more work than she thought. She'd kept a list of damages and cost since the Saotome's had come. If this guy was who she thought he was she was going to milk this for everything it was worth.
"The number there is for his lawyers," Ranma said, reading the greed written plainly across her face. "Good luck," he smirked, and proceeded to walk up the stairs to his room.
* * * *
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Sessho-maru was making sure a couple of old gnomes wouldn't give Ranma further trouble. First the panty thief.
Happosai was up to his usual tricks, this time raiding the women's locker room of a local bath house. "My pretties! Now don't any of you be jealous, I shall love and take care of all of you," he murmured rubbing his cheek on a white lacy bra in his hand.
A shadow crossed the light and the old pervert glimpsed a shapely face and platinum hair out of the corner of his eye. "Hatcha!" he leaped toward the figure when mid flight he found a hand wrapped around his throat. That was a surprise, very few people were that fast. He looked up at the hand's owner and realized his mistake. Demon, and male at that. "Let go of me, I didn't do nothing I tell you!"
"I an Sessho-maru, Lord of the Western Realm."
Happosai went sheet white. "Look here, I was just playing with a few minor conjuring spells . . ."
"I am not here to discuss your dabbling in the occult. I am here to directly address the insult you have made to my family." Sessho-maru brought Happosai closer till the were eye to eye.
"Insult?" Happosai asked, trying not to squirm, "Great lord, I assure you, if I touched any of your women, I didn't know . . ."
"I could care less for such things. I am speaking of your conduct towards my son."
"Your son?". Happosai made a disgusted face. "I would never touch a man."
"I'm talking," Sessho-maru tightened his grip, "about Ramna."
"Oh no," Happosai squinted his eyes shut. This was going to hurt.
* * * *
When Akane arrived home she could hear the loud clatter of pots and pans in the kitchen. She had gone with her friends to the mall, trying to let off some steam because 'that jerk' hadn't come back to class. No doubt hanging out with that Amazon floozy Shampoo, since Ukyo had still been in class.
"Hey Kasumi," Akane inquired, stepping into the kitchen, "why are you preparing all this food?"
"Didn't you hear, Akane?" Nabiki said poking her nose into the kitchen (she had been hovering, waiting for her sister's return). "Genma isn't Ranma's father. His real father is some powerful demon who has come to take him away."
Weird. Then again, with Ranma, they'd seen weirder. "When did this happen?"
"This morning, I'm afraid," Kasumi said solemnly.
"Well, don't worry about Ranma. He'll just defeat this guy and . . ."
"But Akane, Ranma wants to go. In fact, he even called off the engagement with Daddy and Mr. Saotome.
"He what?" Anger fought with hurt and, in a classic Akane defense mechanism, anger won. "RAANMAA!"
"Oh my."
As Akane stomped away, Nabiki grinned maliciously. That would teach him to treat her lightly. Now to 'invite' the rest of the crew to dinner.
Upstairs, Ranma heard the short-haired girl's shout and rolled his eyes. Switching to hanyou form, he gathered up his finished pack and exited the guest room. Akane was half way up the stairs in her tirade when he came out. Startled by his appearance, she froze, giving him enough time to vault the stairs down to the main floor. Fuming anew, Akane turned around and stomped down after him. No matter what he looked like, he was still Ranma, and she could take care of him anytime she felt like it.
Nabiki was peering into the main room with a camera. Close enough to catch all the action, yet far enough away to seem uninvolved. "Interesting new look," she stated with a predatory smile.
"Ranma, how dare your make decisions concerning my future without consulting me!"
Ranma rolled his eyes. Usually Akane's fits of temper left him feeling angry or guilty. Not this time. Now he had someone to compare her to. Kagome, although she would get angry and hit him sometimes, would also apologize when she was wrong. She would hug him when she was afraid, and she had trusted him to take care of her. In comparison, Akane fell as flat as her chest (heh).
"Pay attention to me!" Akane brought out mallet-sama and swung at him as hard as she could, then gasped as the mallet stopped mid-air.
Tugging it free from her grasp, Ranma proceeded to smash the instrument into sawdust.
As Akane stood aghast, Nabiki thought furiously. "That is definitely a good look on you Ranma, however, I wonder how much better you'd look in your female form?"
Ranma didn't even try to dodge the glass of water. Blinking the droplets from his eyelashes and shaking the water out of his hair, he smirked. In all that had happened in the last couple of days, he'd almost forgotten. "My youkai half cured the curse."
Nabiki seethed, then began to take pictures of him. Ranma calmly whisked the camera from her hands and crumpled it up.
"Ranma, how dare you do that to my sister!"
"Your going to pay for that, Saotome."
"Make me," he replied, baring his fangs. "And it's West now."
Nabiki quickly exited, her hands clenching and unclenching.
"Just you wait, you jerk." Akane stomped back to the kitchen.
"Kasumi, can I help fix dinner?"
"No Akane, I'd rather Ranma be able to eat his last meal with us."
Akane's system was once again in shock. Kasumi - berated her? Insulted her cooking? Feeling a bit numb, Akane went up to her room to think.
As she entered her room, she heard a familiar squeal. "P-chan, is that you? Oh, P-chan." Akane picked up her pet pig and hugged him to her chest. "You'll never believe what that jerk, Ranma, has done now. P- chan's squeal now became indignant as he swiveled his ears forward, listening intently to a now sobbing Akane.
* * * *
"Hey Kasumi," Ranma called, once again in human form, "I'm going out for some fresh air. Do you need anything?"
"No, thank you. I'm just fine Ranma-kun."
"Ok." Ranma left the house and started down the street. He hadn't gotten far when he heard a familiar cry.
"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!"
Ranma smirked as Ryoga's punch whistled by ruffling his hair. "Sorry, no one here by that name. My name is Ranma West."
"I know about your sordid background, spawn of demons!"
"Ah, listening in again in Akane's room as P-chan were we?" Ranma stated, as he continued to nimbly dodge all of Ryoga's swings.
"Shut up oni! I knew you cheated in our fights somehow all these years. For this insult and for all the unhappiness you have caused for me and for Akane I will make you pay."
"You know, I always did wonder about those teeth of yours, fang boy. Got a touch of demon blood in your background?"
"How dare you associate me with your own evil! All this time you've been stringing Akane along, probably to use her as a virgin in some unholy rite!"
"You know what, Ryoga," Ranma stated while changing into his hanyo form, "you bore me." Sniff, sniff sniff. "You smell funny. You smell," Ranma's now golden eyes widened, "like pork!".
"Ranma, how dare you . . . "
Ranma beared his fangs and licked his lips, slinking toward Ryoga. "I wonder what you taste like."
Ryoga started to look nervous and unconsciously backed away a step. "Get away from me you demon half-breed!"
"Humm, raw, roasted, barbaqued . . "
"You won't lay a hand on me." Ryoga goes in for the power swing and is knocked to the ground, stunned, by Ranma's much more powerful punch.
"Oh look Ryoga, now I'm faster and stronger than you." Ranma stated pinning the lost boy to the ground.
Ryoga struggled, He's too strong. No, no I can't let him beat me.
"A light workout, but I still worked up an appetite," slited golden eyes stare down at Ryoga, "and you know how I eat."
Ryoga fainted and Ranma got up and walked away chuckling, looking rather pleased with himself.
Authors note: Well, I had to cut this chapter in half, it was just getting way to long. If you like this story I recommend "Where I belong". It's a Ranma/Kenshin crossover by Unseen Watcher (listed in the Kenshin section) and it's way better. Thanks for reading.