Ranma Nibunnoichi - Reflections
A. V. Morgan
Part Nine: The Double Date of Doom
The shopping district of downtown Nerima had a pleasant, outdoor mall kind of feel. Bordering one end of the largest park, a number of establishments could offer a pleasant view out their windows, or from the small tables placed on the sidewalk. The Kuno siblings had taken advantage of this to enhance the mood on their dates. Copy-chan sat across from Tatewaki at one table, and glanced occasionally over his shoulder, and that of his sister sitting with her back to them at the next table, to look at Copy-kun. His look of frustration was a mirror of her own. She sighed. The double date had started harmlessly enough. The respective couples had walked through the park, bought treats from street vendors, and now shared desserts at the ice cream parlor, while Copy-chan and Copy-kun tried to participate in the Kuno dominated conversations.
"Kuno…" she tried once again to interrupt his tirade.
"…there I stood, sword in hand as they came at me. One after another!" he prattled on, describing some epic battle that seemed to unfold in a realm far removed from reality.
"Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!" Kodachi's voice briefly drowned him out, while both copies cringed in pain at her laugh. "The silly girls cowered before me, none daring to rise up. I say to you, how utterly plebian! To dare presume to meet me in equal combat in the gymnasium! But there was no danger now, I had shown them the error of such presumption!"
"But… aren't students supposed to compete in school competitions?" Copy-kun managed to insert, while she was taking a breath.
"…I struck a mighty blow! The knave cowered as his bokan shattered before my astonishing skill!" Tatewaki's voice rose in volume, drowning out his sister's response to Copy-kun. "Yea, with the defeat of their champion, they hung their heads in shame and groveled before my majesty!"
Copy-chan rolled her eyes. Her patience was running out. Standing, she made to excuse herself, but Kuno was out of his seat, his arms crushing her to his body. The air whooshed out of her lungs, and she could not draw a breath while in his grip. Straining to look up, as her vision began to waver, she noticed the look of intense passion on his face. Does he think I was jumping into his arms in awe of his "masterful victory"? she gasped. His hands were crawling over her as she struggled weakly in his arms. As his fingers clenched on her ass, she somehow found the strength to break his hold and step back.
"Watch the hands, jerk!" she bellowed, sucking in a decent breath.
"Ah, my fiery goddess, you are so shy!" He lunged forward again.
Copy-chan tried to jump back, but moved with such shock she could have cleared a rooftop. If, that is, Kuno had not succeeded in wrapping his arms around her waist, planting the kiss intended for her lips right in her bosom. "Kyaaaaaa!" she wiggled and pounded on his head, trying to make him stop. Beside her, she heard the distinct sound of bodies hitting the pavement as Kodachi tackled Copy-kun on his way to help her.
"Oofff!"
"Ranma! Darling!"
"Stopitstopitstopit!" Copy-chan grabbed Tatewaki's hair and pulled, trying to separate his face from her body.
"Mo, my memmumiph mommeph!" Kuno mumbled through her shirt.
Copy-chan was about to rip the boy's ears off. Her mind spun, trying to figure out what was going wrong with this whole date. Love struck and fickle, the clones initially responded to the fawning from their dates. It was clumsy, and invasive, but it sort of did follow the pattern of flirting. At the same time, there was nothing comforting about these physical overtures. They kept triggering fighting instincts, identifying the amorous lunging and grabbing as clear submission tactics. There was nothing seductive about it. Hell, when Ryouga had outright pinned her to the street, she had felt more responsive than she did to this!
"Kuno! Let me go!"
"As you wish, fair maiden," he looked up and grinned. "You have but to give me a kiss and I shall release you."
She looked down into his eyes and shuddered. The stipulated purpose of this date was to allow the siblings to woo them, to overcome Copy-chan and Copy-kun's affection for each other. She had come into this primed to be romanced, and maybe a little seduced. However, the constant clinging, the possessive and lewd pawing, like this, panicked her. "This isn't fun, Kuno!"
"Oh, don't be silly. Just one little kiss," he urged.
"Will you let go! He's startin' to scare her!" Copy-kun was shouting into Kodachi's face. Sparing a glance in his direction, Copy-chan found herself wondering how anything human could be doing such an impressive octopus impersonation. Was Kodachi a gymnast or a contortionist!?
"Oh, Ranma-sama, fear not for my brother's Love," she importuned, straining to paint his face with little kisses. "She is in quite capable hands. As are you!" Her hands wandered, groping and pinching.
"Capable of what! Ite! That hurts you know!"
Copy-chan snapped her attention back to Kuno as he began nuzzling her belly. Her struggles had allowed her to worm her way up a few inches at a time, but if she continued… and he continued THAT… she did not dare struggle much more. As his face burrowed into her midsection, he found an opening in her shirt. Copy-chan stiffened, her aura exploding out of her, as his tongue darted into her belly button. Her feet instantly found purchase in his gut, as her arms descended in righteous anger. She managed to push away far enough from him that the mallet appearing in her hands came down perfectly on the top of his skull. "Kuno no HENTAI!!!" she screamed.
"Co-chan!" Copy-kun bounced straight up, somehow shedding his Kodachi coating like a film of water, as he reached out to Copy-chan. There was no thought. The outrage, the fear, in her voice hit the "serve and protect" button in his brain. He did not mean to abandon Kodachi; though somewhere deep inside he was glad of an excuse. He had simply scooped Copy-chan into his arms and taken flight before he could remember that they were supposed to be with the Kunos.
"Ranma-sama! Where are you going!? Fight her evil influence! Do it for me!" Kodachi was racing after them, a storm of black rose-petals swirling away from her as she bounded along.
Copy-chan just held onto her counterpart and shuddered. "Don't listen, just keep going!" she breathed. She hated herself for it. It felt like running from battle. But, the overzealous and obsessive behaviors Tatewaki and Kodachi were prey to were just too alarming. Dating them could not be right if they were beginning to feel threatened by their paramours.
"Saotome! Return at once and unhand my voluptuous vixen!" Kuno was charging along below them, drawing his bokan. "Remember your vows to let us date you!"
"Vows!?" the pair snapped around to glare at him. "Nobody vowed anything! Stop puttin' words in our mouths!"
"Among other things!" Copy-chan pointed accusingly. That was another thing that was bothering her. Kuno and his sister had bought them lots of wonderful treats, and then proceeded to try feeding them bites. That had been cute once, but the psychotic siblings had started to get "playful". A few items had tasted too weird for her to trust the next thing he tried to poke in her mouth.
"A gentlemen's agreement is as solemn as any vow," Kuno declared.
"You call yourself a gentleman!?" the copies shouted back.
"Why are you interfering, Saotome!? I have posed neither threat nor action against you, yet again you obey the foul compulsion! Do you lack the will to command your own mind!?" the kendoist challenged. That was enough to make Copy-kun whip around and drop to the ground in front of Kuno.
"That's low, Kuno," he growled.
Copy-chan blinked in surprise as her opposite shoved her into Kuno's arms. "What do you think you're doing?"
"We made an agreement with them. I can't fight with him. I have to stay out of the way," he explained, bowing his head in mournful rage. Then, looking up at Kuno with a deadly expression, he added, "Be careful, Kuno. If you hurt her, if you even upset her, I will put an end to this."
Kodachi, having rushed over to claim Copy-kun, gazed at this pronouncement and blinked in astonishment. It was such a manly, noble declaration, but it was made in her rival's defense. Her mind did not know what to think. She blanked out until Copy-chan's finger prodded her in the sternum.
"That goes for you too, Kodachi," she warned.
The couples returned to the ice cream parlor, where the copies focused on devouring their melted treats under clouds of frustration. The Kuno's remained a bit cowed for the next fifteen minutes, and then proceeded to work themselves up to obsessive levels again. Even as their warnings went largely unheeded, the copies strained to endure the remainder of the afternoon. Their dates had quickly devolved into a cycle of fight or flight efforts by each clone to escape molestation. But just enough to get breathing room and the nerve to continue. More than once, the clones were forced to cross the line to defend each other's honor, until once more they were back to back fighting each other's suitor.
Ranma was in a good mood. Akane was in a good mood, because Ranma had been too happy to trouble with insults, and feeling generous, was paying a lot of attention to Akane. After the initial splurge on ice cream, Ranma had doused himself with hot water and dragged Akane to see a movie they had both wanted to see. They had left the ice cream parlor well ahead of the arrival of the double date, so they were still blissfully unaware of what was going on. On the walk home, Akane mused that their afternoon had been a date in all but name. Fortunately. Putting a word or a purpose on it would ruin it. Perhaps Ranma sensed that too. He simply took her hand and walked beside her on the sidewalk. Faint smiles touched their lips. Everything remained peaceful, until they got home and Ranma confronted Nabiki.
"Good news, Ranma-kun!" the middle Tendo daughter announced, standing in the genkan ready to pounce on them. "Your Kuno problems have been solved!"
Ranma casually let go of Akane's hand, to scratch his head. "I gotta say it, Nabiki. I am impressed. I don't know how you got those two to see the truth," he chuckled, shaking his head.
"Is that what's been going on? You finally got them to listen?" Akane perked up. She had been wondering what had made her fiancé so blasted cheerful. She could not believe he hadn't told her. Stupid jerk! After a narrow eyed look at Ranma, she turned to her sister. "So, what did you have to do to get them to understand?"
Nabiki laughed, "Oh, you both give me too much credit. If anything they're more clueless than before. However," she held up a finger, "I found a way to use their insanity to help mitigate some of the insanity around here."
"What? But they asked me about the curse and everything! It seemed like they finally got it," Ranma was beginning to lose his sunny disposition. He looked up and begged the heavens that this was not going to become complicated.
"Well," Nabiki mused, "I'm afraid it's a little more complicated." She paused as Ranma dove onto his face. "Maybe we should sit down to discuss this, ne?" She turned and let them in to the living room. When they all sat down, and Kasumi had produced tea and snacks, Nabiki proceeded to explain. "As we all know, there is no limit to the density of the Kuno family psyche. Rather than try to penetrate it with the truth, I told them what they wanted to hear."
At the moment, Ukyo stormed into the room, "Hey, everyone! You're not going to believe this!"
Everyone looked up and asked what she was so excited about.
"The Kuno's are on a double date with your copies, Ran-chan!"
Ranma and Akane both looked thunderstruck.
"No way! How the hell did that happen!?"
"The horror," Akane gasped.
Nabiki cleared her throat. "Take a seat, Ukyo-chan, I was just about to explain this to them," she glared at the okonomiyaki chef for spoiling the punch line. "As I was saying, I decided to kill four birds with one stone. The Kunos have always been a problem, especially for Ranma, and the copies of Ranma are potentially worse. Fortunately, these two problems cancel each other out perfectly."
Ranma studied her, remembering the lunchtime meeting. "You set this whole thing up. You probably even told them how to take advantage of the copies' obsession. You arranged this double date," he put it all together, aloud, unable to decide if it was genius or insanity.
"That's about right, Ranma-kun. Like I said, you're starting to show some real promise," she praised with understated sarcasm. She caught the looks from the other girls at the table. Ukyo and Akane were a little disturbed that Nabiki had set up his clones with the Kunos. It seemed too cruel to do to anyone, even them, and they commented on it aloud.
"Geez, Oneechan," Akane crossed her arms and frowned. "Those two are like amnesia victims. They have no idea what they're getting into, and worse, they're modeled on a complete pervert!"
"Hey! I'm not like that!"
"That's a nasty thing to do, even to people you don't want to have around," Ukyo accused, allowing her words to drown out Ranma's protest. Before a fight could break out, she turned to Ranma and asked, "Is this alright with you? I mean, it's not likely to go anywhere, but now the Kunos will have a whole new level of absurdity to cling to. They'll never believe the truth now," she observed. Ranma stared at her. All the happiness from the afternoon had drained out of him, and sweat was beading on his forehead.
"Honestly, I think the copies are too conditioned to pound on those two to be able to seriously date them. The point is that as long as the Kunos are chasing them, you are in the clear, Ranma," Nabiki cut in before Ranma could answer Ukyo.
"But," Ranma was worrying now, "The only reason they never hooked up with anyone but each other was because they scared most people off. No way that's gonna happen with the Kunos. You could not chase them off with a pack of rabid wild c-c-cats!"
"You have a point there," Nabiki admitted, as she began to think it over again. For crying out loud, both copies had put the moves on Ranma, and there were few things more dangerous to truly mess with.
Ukyo shrugged and turned back to Ranma, "I don't see the problem, really. If the dates lead nowhere, very little has changed. If they do get serious, then that takes care of both problems, right? Unless…" she bit her lip. "Ran-chan? Do those two HAVE to go back in the mirror? Will something bad happen if they stay out?"
"No way! They go back at the end of the week! That's final!"
"Hmmm," Nabiki tilted her head and commented absently, "That definitely makes things complicated. Whatever sort of relationship the Kunos thing they're getting into, they'll automatically converge on Ranma as soon as the copies are gone." She snapped her mouth shut, as she realized she was thinking aloud.
The comment hit Ranma like an atom bomb, "I gotta stop them! Now!" He jumped up and ran out of the house. He had to break up the dates at once. The rest followed, expecting things to swiftly balloon into pandemonium.
"Ranma! Wait!"
"I'm with you, Ran-chan!"
"I'll, uh, be along shortly," Nabiki saw the martial artists flying out of sight and dropped into a walk. Imagine her, running! She shook her head.
As Ranma raced desperately across Nerima, pursued by his official fiancées, he had no idea that the double date was coming to a furious conclusion. Two figures, trembling with shattered nerves and angry disgust were cutting through the park with every intention of returning to the Tendo Dojo. Trailing them with threats and entreaties were their respective dates. The copies tried to ignore Tatewaki and Kodachi, while smoothing down their disheveled hair and straightening their clothing. Their wild eyes and sweat sheened faces revealed that the glut of aphrodisiacs, slipped to them by the Kunos, were beginning to be metabolized, adding to the emotional turmoil each suffered. They did not know what to do with themselves, but getting away from the psychotic siblings definitely seemed like a good start.
Unfortunately, Tatewaki and Kodachi would not back off.
"Leggo, dammit! I said the date is over! I have to go!"
"Pig-tailed-girl! I implore you! The evening is still young!"
"Oh, Ranma-sama! Let us recline together under the shade of that tree!"
"No, Kodachi! I said it was time to go home!"
In their initial efforts to slip away, they had made promises to allow their suitors to take them on a later date, if they would just go away for now. That was imperative. Once their bodies had begun to respond to the molestation, they had known it was time to split. Things were going way too fast, spinning out of control, and that upset them to the core.
"Stop it, Kuno! There won't be a second date if you don't back off!"
"Ko-Kodachi! Let go of… get your hands outta there!"
Copy-chan bashed Kuno down for the hundredth time and turned to look at her counterpart. Poor Copy-kun was fairing poorly against Kodachi, unwilling to actually hit her or hurt her to make her back off. Seeing that the girl had tripped him and was slipping her hand into the waistband of his pants, while Copy-kun slithered back in desperation, she had to come to his aid once more. Grabbing the girl by her side-slung ponytail, she jerked her off of Copy-kun and threw her towards the nearest tree. As Kodachi flipped in the air and readied herself to spring back, Kuno recovered and lunged for Copy-chan.
Copy-kun, seeing she had her back to him, focusing on Kodachi, flew across to catch Kuno on the chin with a solid kick. He was happy to square off against the kendoist, since this was a threat he could easily defend himself against, where as his sister's assaults made a mockery of his defenses. If he had known how impulsive and treacherous the nature of the Kuno siblings was, neither he nor Copy-chan would have agreed to their proposals.
"It is to laugh," Kuno remarked, rubbing his jaw and composing himself regally as Copy-kun squared off against him once more. "I, the great Tatewaki Kuno, forced to choose between love and honor, must bow and accept such blows. Though it is meet I should teach you the lesson you well deserve, I repeat, I will not fight with you, Saotome."
"Too bad. If anyone needs a lesson here, it's you, moron!"
"Pig-tailed-girl! Again you try to come between me and my love!" Kodachi was raving, fanning a set of gymnastic clubs in one hand and twirling a ribbon in the other. "Clearly, it is not possible for Ranma-sama to court me while you remain present. To that end, I deliver you into the care of my brother, using whatever means necessary to discourage your misplaced affection for my beloved!"
"Dream on, Kodachi! I've seen what you're like now. I can't let him date a psycho like you!" Copy-chan prepared herself for the girl's attack.
"My dear sister! It is time we joined forces to separate these two, that we might persevere in our efforts to woo them!"
"Don't think you're getting through me, Kuno! There's no way I'll let her go out with a freak like you!" Copy-kun shouted, rushing forward.
"I am ready, elder brother! For love!" she cried, signaling the beginning of the siblings' combined attack. As one, the Kunos moved to flank their rivals, preparing to lash out. The copies moved with equal precision, stepping in close to penetrate the broad defenses their opponents enjoyed courtesy of their weapons. They were both surprised by the intensity of the Kunos' attacks, finding themselves forced to dodge. As Copy-chan darted away from Kodachi's attack, Copy-kun stumbled into it, retreating from Kuno's "strike of a thousand blows". Copy-kun found himself snared by Kodachi's ribbon, as Copy-chan's clothing vanished into a thousand shreds under the skillful blows of Kuno's bokan.
"Gyaaaa! *Gulp* *Gag* *Cough cough* What're you tryin' to do!? Choke me to death!?" Copy-chan screamed, as Kuno took advantage of her gasp of surprise, her hands busy trying to keep her clothes from falling off, to squirt some kind of fluid down her throat.
Copy-kun, rolling on the ground after being tripped by the constricting ribbon, tried to see what the kendoist had done to his counterpart, when Kodachi lobbed a small globe at his face. It popped on impact, dousing him in a cloud of sickeningly sweet vapor. "D… dammit, Koda… *Snork, snore*" he was unconscious before he could finish griping.
Copy-chan whipped around to see what had happened to him, but the world kept spinning even after she stopped. She was still struggling to recover her balance when Kuno grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. "Have no fear, my goddess! The Secret Sake of Love will surely overpower the curse you suffer! You shall be drunk with love for me!"'
"Excellent work, brother dear! Now we must hasten to put as much distance between these two as possible, to counter the effects of that accursed attraction!" Kodachi produced a make-shift litter and rolled Copy-kun's unconscious body onto it. Kuno nodded, pausing to place his hand on his sister's shoulder.
"Truly, extraordinary measures are mandated lest we fail to preserve our most beloved treasures from the danger of each other. Go now, Kodachi, to victory!" he bowed his head to her, then began to prance the opposite way through the park. In the bushes, just out of sight, Akane and Ukyo climbed off of Ranma. The three of them had arrived in time to see the mismatched couples quarrel and fight, and the fiancées had dog piled on Ranma to keep him from jumping into the middle of things and making them worse. While holding him down, they had gotten an eyeful as the Kuno's swiftly incapacitated Ranma's twins and began carting them off.
"I suppose we should have expected this," Akane quipped.
"What didja go and do that for!?" Ranma complained as he picked himself up and dusted himself off.
"Ranchan, do you think it would be a good idea to let the Kunos see you and your copies all at the same time? I mean, think about it," Ukyo tried to point out reasonably.
"Later," Akane huffed, "Right now we should split up and go rescue those clowns. Come on, Ukyo." Akane grabbed the chef by the arm and dragged her off after Kodachi. Ranma fumed for a moment, then turned to sprint after Kuno. As soon as the three of them were out of sight, another form pushed through the bushes, from the opposite side of the clearing.
"Where in the world am I now!" Ryouga cried out to the sky. Lowering his eyes, he noticed the signs of recent combat. Picking up a few of Kodachi's clubs his face became excited. "This is one of Kodachi's clubs! I am sure of it! Does… does that mean I am back in Nerima!?" He began laughing, tears streaming down his cheeks. "Oh, Akari! Again my heart leads the way to you!" he could not believe his luck. Just that morning, he had resolved to call Akari and arrange for a date to make up for the one he had run out on after being kissed by Ranma's copy. Believing it had been Ranma, he had been too ashamed to face Akari. But, she seemed eager to meet with him again, suggesting the park after school. Now all he had to do was figure out where in the park their meeting place was!
By pure chance, or maybe the true curse of his warped sense of direction was to always pick the worst possible destination and reach it in great haste, he rushed off in the same direction as Ranma and Kuno.
Akane and Ukyo hightailed it after Kodachi, impressed that she could move so quickly while dragging so much dead weight. Kodachi heard the rush of feet behind her and whipped around, forgetting for the moment the boy on the improvised litter. The gymnast unintentionally dumped him in a shallow trench beside the path she had been following, dodging Ukyo and Akane's initial assault. "Oh-hohohohohohoho! Do you think to catch me by surprise!" she cried, reaching into nowhere to produce part of her arsenal.
"Does it look like we're going for surprise here!?" Ukyo cried, flinging a handful of mini-spatulas to shred ribbon and knock clubs from the gymnast's hands. In her other hand, she readied her primary weapon, the giant spatula.
"Don't waste your breath, Ukyo," Akane growled. "There's no point talking to her." Cracking her knuckles, Akane grinned in anticipation of finally getting the chance to pay Kodachi back for the insults and ambushes of their first conflict. In seconds, the official fiancées had closed in on the self-appointed rival and begun their deadly dance. On the surface it seemed a typical fight of the rival fiancée's over Ranma, except the clone did not inspire any conflict between Akane and Ukyo. This allowed them to work effectively together against Kodachi and her treacherous attacks.
Within moments, the allies had Kodachi on the ropes.
In the opposite direction, Ranma had unexpectedly caught up to and confronted Kuno. He had expected the older boy would be able to make a swift getaway, hardly burdened by Copy-chan's light form. He was not prepared to stumble across the couple near the edge of the park. Seeing the kendoist bent over the girl's unconscious form, his hands around her neck, Ranma's heart lurched in a panic. He certainly could not know that Kuno had paused to choke another combination of aphrodisiacs and the rest of a love potion down the girl's throat. Though he could not imagine why the older boy might try to kill his "goddess" Ranma really could not put such a thing past him. Kuno, for his part, might not have actually intended to choke the girl to death, but it had not occurred to him to wonder how she could swallow while unconscious.
"Kuno!" Ranma roared, "If you've hurt her, I'll make you wish you were never born!" Ranma kicked Kuno off, and dropped to check on the girl. Before he could so much as verify that she was breathing, Kuno had rebounded and rushed forward to attack.
"Saotome! I do not know how you escaped my sister's clutches, but I assure you, you shall not this time escape my wrath!" he lunged with his sword, prepared to thrust it right through the martial artist's chest. His promise not to fight with his rival could not survive the perceived failure of his sister. If she could not keep Ranma out of his way, than it was up to Kuno to remove, once and for all, the threat to his dreams of bliss.
Ranma was forced to retreat rapidly in the face of Kuno's onslaught. He was well aware that Kuno could wield that wooden sword with lethal effectiveness. He also knew that deep in the kendoist's psyche was the memory of his watermelon training. That unbeatable technique was showing itself as Kuno lost himself to rage and a willingness to kill. Sparing one last look at the girl laying helpless in the dirt, Ranma scowled and took flight. He had to lose Kuno quickly if he was going to be able to help her.
The two quickly vanished into combat.
Copy-chan lay there, her throat trying to work around the objects lodged in her throat and draw breath, her mind spinning in an alcohol induced nightmare, while birds flitted from tree emitting cheerful twerps and whistles. A few, painfully long moments passed before Ryouga stumbled through the bushes. If this was fortune smiling on her, it was a warped and wicked smile, because the lost boy was blindly absorbed in fantasies of being reunited with Akari. At least, until he tripped over the girl convulsing in the dirt. Picking himself up, his temper boiling to the surface, he turned to see what offending and soon to be mauled obstruction had dared to spill him onto his face. As his eyes came into focus, and the only appropriate words he could manage to phrase his ire formed in his head, Copy-chan ran out of time. As Ryouga tripped over her, she had reflexively gasped, sucking the obstructions deeper into her throat, sealing off her airway. Her body arched one last time, as the strain on her system from lack of oxygen, too much alcohol, drugs and potions combined to stop her heart.
"Damn you Ranma! Prepare to die!" Ryouga's eternal challenge finally erupted. Ryouga lurched to his feet, umbrella out, ready to follow his challenge with violence. A couple of seconds ticked by. Ryouga's face flushed a dark red. "Hey! Get up, you lazy bastard! It's time for you to pay for all the insults and all the crimes you have committed against me!" The tension holding the girl's body in its final arch of protest suddenly melted away, leaving her limp. "What kind of an idiot do you take me for!?" Ryouga shouted. "Stop playing dead and face me!"
Copy-chan did not move.
Ryouga stared in annoyance. Finally, he moved forward and poked the girl with his umbrella. Nothing. He crouched by her ear and let out a head splitting scream. Still nothing. "Geez, Ranma! What does it take to wake you up!?" He reached out to pinch the back of the girl's hand. Still no reaction. And that was not all, his mind insisted. She was too still. She isn't breathing, a voice murmured in his head. With fingers that suddenly would not stop trembling, he pressed on her wrist, seeking a pulse. He put his ear to her chest, after failing to find a pulse. Finally, a full minute after she stopped moving, he sat back on his heels and gasped, "I don't believe it! Ranma's dead!" Ryouga swallowed hard. He had not done anything. He was sure of it. He had just tripped over her. "Ranma's dead… and… it's not my fault!"
Ryouga bounced up and began to dance around the clearing. At long last! His most hated rival was out of the way! Nothing stood between him and Akane!
Just then Kuno and Ranma rushed through the clearing. Ryouga blinked, as the combatants raced away, splashing through a fountain. Though it was some distance away, Ryouga could not miss the shift from black to red hair, as Ranma changed. His eyes dropped to the girl before him. His mind flashed back to a week earlier, his first kiss, then skipped to that morning.
"Or, did you actually like that kiss?"
"Copy-chan," he breathed.