Ranma was in Nabiki's room studying when Ranma made a comment about the
government could print more money to pay off debts. Nabiki had a strong
reaction to this, and proceeded to lecture Ranma on the impact of money
supply on an economy.
"Do you get it?"
Ranma looked at Nabiki and blinked. He had never seen such intensity in her eyes before, her passion for money was frightening, but even scarier was her grasp of economics.
"Yes." Ranma had no choice but to answer affirmatively, else he would hear the lecture all over again.
"Good." Nabiki knew that Ranma probably didn't understand half of what she said, but if he even understood a quarter, he'll be easier to manipulate later.
***
Ranma had just walked into Nabiki's room to study when he saw that Nabiki wasn't studying, nor was she ready to study. In front of her was a ledger and calculator. Her face was full of concern.
"Nabiki, what's wrong?"
"Money. Expenses. Too much of one and not enough of the other." Nabiki pushed herself away from the desk, and the sat on the floor next to Ranma.
"Money that tight again? Me and Pops haven't done anything bad recently, have we?"
Nabiki started to stretch. "No, Ranma. Sometimes the past catches up to us, so things are going to be very tight for the next few weeks."
"What do you mean the past catches up to us? We don't owe anybody anything do we?" Ranma asked as he tried to peer into her ledger. Ranma lived in an essentially a "cash and carry" world and long range financial planning was unknown to him.
"We have taxes, insurance, and licenses due this month. Even if you weren't here, it would be tight anyway."
Ranma studied the serious look on Nabiki's face, he thought he could see some lines form at the corner of her eyes. When he saw the bite marks on her pencil, he knew that she was serious and was probably on the verge of depression. Trying not to upset her, he kneeled on the floor next to her, being careful not to touch her and then asked, "You have enough money?"
Nabiki put the pencil down, placed her hands on the desk and straightened her back. "We'll be fine," she said. Her voice relayed a considerable level of stress as she continued, "We'll have to take some money from our savings to cover this month. But, we'll also have to save a lot of money later so we can replace the money we took out."
Ranma began to wonder why she worried so much when he heard Kasumi's voice come through the doorway.
"Hello? May I come in?"
Kasumi stepped in, and after nodding to Ranma, she sat on the bed. Kasumi's voice was calm, but the words betrayed her inner feelings, "I couldn't help hearing what you were talking about. Are we going to be short again, Nabiki?"
"'Fraid so, sis. Not by much," Nabiki tried to reduce the impact to her older sister, but failed when she said, "But still." Nabiki hated telling Kasumi bad news.
"I guess I'll tell father. He'll be disappointed."
That night, before falling asleep, Ranma was mulled over the finances of the Tendo household for his first time. It was late at night when he came to the conclusion that he and his father probably overstayed their welcome. Although they were treated as family members even if he hadn't married Akane yet, things could probably be better if he and his father somehow contributed to the money supply. He couldn't get up and leave, at least not if he wanted to retain what little honor and trust he may have earned while staying at the Tendo's.
"Hey, Pops! What'ya do with the money from Doc Tofu?" It was the next morning and Ranma challenged his father. He had a good idea where the money was going, but he had to make sure.
"What, boy, have you gotten into this time? It's none of your business." Genma was upset that his son was challenging him again.
"The way I see it, we should be paying the Tendo's for the food we eat."
"Bullshit! We are guests, and they treat us like guests." Genma was past irritated and was rapidly becoming upset.
"Oh, so that's why we got kicked out so many times. I suppose we didn't over stay our welcome, did we? You said a good guest never overstays his welcome and becomes a burden. Well, what do you gotta say about that?" Ranma was mad to start with, and to hear his father be so inconsiderate towards the Tendos made him boil with anger.
"We are NOT a burden," Genma growled as he reached for his son and tried to throw him. Ranma was too quick and stepped out of the way and into the back garden.
Thus the battle was joined. Ranma counter-attacked his father while goading him about freeloading, being rude, and being a leech. Genma denied each accusation, and furiously attacked Ranma and questioned his manhood at every opportunity. Eventually Ranma knocked his father down and jumped up onto the roof, looking for an opportunity to put his panda-fied father down. Genma taunted his son a he stood up, looking for his son. Ranma planned his strike with the sun at his back, hopefully his father's eyes couldn't adjust to the bright light before he actually made contact.
Kasumi and Soun saw and heard the whole fight from the porch. Soun began to re-evaluate Ranma when he saw his friend hit the ground with a loud thud; not only was he improving as a fighter, but he was showing a moral fortitude and sense of honor that he had not expected from Genma's son. Patting his shirt for his pipe, he muttered, "He'd make a good son if he'd stop insulting so many people."
Kasumi prayed that the fight wouldn't cause any damage, they didn't need any more expenses. When she saw Genma throw a series of vicious punches and kicks at Ranma, she hoped that Ranma would escape unharmed. At the end she found herself holding her breath and happy that Ranma had won.
Nabiki woke to the sound of loud shouts and collisions from the savage battle outside, and watched from the upstairs balcony. Admiring Ranma's choice of insults, she basked in the happiness that he actually learned something while listening to her lectures, and when it was all over, she watched him stomp off to get cleaned up. "What are we going to do with you?" she thought as she left the balcony.
***
Later that morning, Ranma sat in the guestroom staring at the ceiling simply because he thought it was a good idea when he heard Akane knock on the door.
"Ranma, what are you doing?" Akane sounded bored to Ranma.
Ranma continued to stare at the ceiling and replied in a monotone "Nothing."
As he looked at the corners where the walls met the ceiling, Ranma heard Akane step into the room. He had memorized every crack and paint patch and was watching a single mite of dust float through the air. In the back of his mind he knew that Akane was about to make a suggestion that he probably wouldn't like. Thinking quickly, Ranma came up with an idea that may save the rest of the day for him.
As the speck of dust finally wafted out of site, he stretched and asked Akane, "Wanna go to the waterfront? It's gotta be more interesting than here."
"You just asked me out?" Akane sounded elated, which was good, but that also meant that the fathers might start celebrating a marriage that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
With the image of a minister in his eyes and the fathers behind him, Ranma became uncomfortable. "N-n-n-n-no. No. Nothing like that. I thought that it would be kind of interesting..." he said, trying to hide his nervousness.
Akane's smile never left her face as she reached down to help Ranma off the mats. "Sure. Let's go," she said.
The couple found themselves in front of two excited fathers a few minutes later. Genma was slapping Ranma on the back, making comments about taking his time and Soun looked to be getting ready to cry tears of happiness. Just before Ranma and Akane closed the door behind them, they saw their fathers pulling out a bottle of sake and heard them making some comments about a blissful future.
Just before the closed the door, they heard one last voice.
"Akane, Ranma?" Kasumi's called from the kitchen. "Remember to be back in time for dinner."
Akane responded, "Yes, sister, we'll be back for dinner."
It was an idyllic time at the waterfront for the two; they watched the fishermen hawk their fish, peered into different boats, and snacked.
"Nihao!"
Ranma and Akane froze. The high pitched voice was Shampoo's and they didn't want to hear it.
"Husband! I no stay. Must get fish for dinner. You come, no?" Shampoo was on her bicycle, leaning on Ranma's arm.
"Uh, no, Shampoo." Ranma tried to extract his arm from her clutches. "I promised Kasumi I'll be home tonight."
"So violent girl," Shampoo looked at Akane, "not cook tonight. That is good. Sick or dead husband is very bad." Shampoo nuzzled Ranma while watching Akane's reaction.
"Why..." Akane was starting to see red. "You..."
Akane wasn't able to complete her comment, Shampoo had let go of Ranma and started to peddle away.
Ranma's voice worked its way through Akane's anger, "She's gone. Akane, stop."
"That brazen bimbo! Why do you keep her around!"
"I don't keep her around. She just doesn't leave. There's a difference."
Ranma grabbed Akane's hand and gently held it, watching her anger melt away. They resumed their walk by the waterfront, and stopped for a lunch.
"Akane, can you help me with something?"
"He's asking me to help him?" Akane thought. "What is it, Ranma?"
"I wanna buy some stuff for Kasumi and Nabiki. I don' have a lot of money, but I don't know what to get them."
"Why?" she asked. Ranma has never really bought her anything, so she was feeling a little more than jealous.
"Because they've been helping to keep things quiet. How often has somebody come by recently and caused problems? When was the last time you or I got into a fight?
"Kasumi has stopped our fathers from marrying us off more times than I can count. Nabiki still tutors me even when she's mad at me.
"But mostly it's 'cause it's quiet."
"So there's nothing there," Akane thought.
"Ok," she agreed. "I know just what to get them. On the way back we can stop in that store you didn't want to go in." Akane smiled; Ranma had made a scene about not going into the stationary store at the beginning of the waterfront.
The sun was beginning to descend when Ranma and Akane were finished their shopping when Ranma spotted a small wooden duck on a shelf near the cash register. He picked it up and looked at the price, and heard, "No, Ranma."
"What are you talking about, Akane." Ranma was confused.
"You don't need to buy me anything. You need to just get the gifts for my sisters." Akane was happy, knowing that Ranma did think of her and that he was going to buy her something without any prompting warmed her heart.
"But I want to." Ranma sounded even more confused now.
"Thank you, Ranma, for the thoughts, but if you give that to me, it'll cheapen the gifts to Kasumi and Nabiki." Akane did want the duck, but she really wanted him to do the right thing.
Ranma put the duck back, and held Akane's hand. "You sure?"
Akane nodded her head just once.
"Do you get it?"
Ranma looked at Nabiki and blinked. He had never seen such intensity in her eyes before, her passion for money was frightening, but even scarier was her grasp of economics.
"Yes." Ranma had no choice but to answer affirmatively, else he would hear the lecture all over again.
"Good." Nabiki knew that Ranma probably didn't understand half of what she said, but if he even understood a quarter, he'll be easier to manipulate later.
***
Ranma had just walked into Nabiki's room to study when he saw that Nabiki wasn't studying, nor was she ready to study. In front of her was a ledger and calculator. Her face was full of concern.
"Nabiki, what's wrong?"
"Money. Expenses. Too much of one and not enough of the other." Nabiki pushed herself away from the desk, and the sat on the floor next to Ranma.
"Money that tight again? Me and Pops haven't done anything bad recently, have we?"
Nabiki started to stretch. "No, Ranma. Sometimes the past catches up to us, so things are going to be very tight for the next few weeks."
"What do you mean the past catches up to us? We don't owe anybody anything do we?" Ranma asked as he tried to peer into her ledger. Ranma lived in an essentially a "cash and carry" world and long range financial planning was unknown to him.
"We have taxes, insurance, and licenses due this month. Even if you weren't here, it would be tight anyway."
Ranma studied the serious look on Nabiki's face, he thought he could see some lines form at the corner of her eyes. When he saw the bite marks on her pencil, he knew that she was serious and was probably on the verge of depression. Trying not to upset her, he kneeled on the floor next to her, being careful not to touch her and then asked, "You have enough money?"
Nabiki put the pencil down, placed her hands on the desk and straightened her back. "We'll be fine," she said. Her voice relayed a considerable level of stress as she continued, "We'll have to take some money from our savings to cover this month. But, we'll also have to save a lot of money later so we can replace the money we took out."
Ranma began to wonder why she worried so much when he heard Kasumi's voice come through the doorway.
"Hello? May I come in?"
Kasumi stepped in, and after nodding to Ranma, she sat on the bed. Kasumi's voice was calm, but the words betrayed her inner feelings, "I couldn't help hearing what you were talking about. Are we going to be short again, Nabiki?"
"'Fraid so, sis. Not by much," Nabiki tried to reduce the impact to her older sister, but failed when she said, "But still." Nabiki hated telling Kasumi bad news.
"I guess I'll tell father. He'll be disappointed."
That night, before falling asleep, Ranma was mulled over the finances of the Tendo household for his first time. It was late at night when he came to the conclusion that he and his father probably overstayed their welcome. Although they were treated as family members even if he hadn't married Akane yet, things could probably be better if he and his father somehow contributed to the money supply. He couldn't get up and leave, at least not if he wanted to retain what little honor and trust he may have earned while staying at the Tendo's.
"Hey, Pops! What'ya do with the money from Doc Tofu?" It was the next morning and Ranma challenged his father. He had a good idea where the money was going, but he had to make sure.
"What, boy, have you gotten into this time? It's none of your business." Genma was upset that his son was challenging him again.
"The way I see it, we should be paying the Tendo's for the food we eat."
"Bullshit! We are guests, and they treat us like guests." Genma was past irritated and was rapidly becoming upset.
"Oh, so that's why we got kicked out so many times. I suppose we didn't over stay our welcome, did we? You said a good guest never overstays his welcome and becomes a burden. Well, what do you gotta say about that?" Ranma was mad to start with, and to hear his father be so inconsiderate towards the Tendos made him boil with anger.
"We are NOT a burden," Genma growled as he reached for his son and tried to throw him. Ranma was too quick and stepped out of the way and into the back garden.
Thus the battle was joined. Ranma counter-attacked his father while goading him about freeloading, being rude, and being a leech. Genma denied each accusation, and furiously attacked Ranma and questioned his manhood at every opportunity. Eventually Ranma knocked his father down and jumped up onto the roof, looking for an opportunity to put his panda-fied father down. Genma taunted his son a he stood up, looking for his son. Ranma planned his strike with the sun at his back, hopefully his father's eyes couldn't adjust to the bright light before he actually made contact.
Kasumi and Soun saw and heard the whole fight from the porch. Soun began to re-evaluate Ranma when he saw his friend hit the ground with a loud thud; not only was he improving as a fighter, but he was showing a moral fortitude and sense of honor that he had not expected from Genma's son. Patting his shirt for his pipe, he muttered, "He'd make a good son if he'd stop insulting so many people."
Kasumi prayed that the fight wouldn't cause any damage, they didn't need any more expenses. When she saw Genma throw a series of vicious punches and kicks at Ranma, she hoped that Ranma would escape unharmed. At the end she found herself holding her breath and happy that Ranma had won.
Nabiki woke to the sound of loud shouts and collisions from the savage battle outside, and watched from the upstairs balcony. Admiring Ranma's choice of insults, she basked in the happiness that he actually learned something while listening to her lectures, and when it was all over, she watched him stomp off to get cleaned up. "What are we going to do with you?" she thought as she left the balcony.
***
Later that morning, Ranma sat in the guestroom staring at the ceiling simply because he thought it was a good idea when he heard Akane knock on the door.
"Ranma, what are you doing?" Akane sounded bored to Ranma.
Ranma continued to stare at the ceiling and replied in a monotone "Nothing."
As he looked at the corners where the walls met the ceiling, Ranma heard Akane step into the room. He had memorized every crack and paint patch and was watching a single mite of dust float through the air. In the back of his mind he knew that Akane was about to make a suggestion that he probably wouldn't like. Thinking quickly, Ranma came up with an idea that may save the rest of the day for him.
As the speck of dust finally wafted out of site, he stretched and asked Akane, "Wanna go to the waterfront? It's gotta be more interesting than here."
"You just asked me out?" Akane sounded elated, which was good, but that also meant that the fathers might start celebrating a marriage that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
With the image of a minister in his eyes and the fathers behind him, Ranma became uncomfortable. "N-n-n-n-no. No. Nothing like that. I thought that it would be kind of interesting..." he said, trying to hide his nervousness.
Akane's smile never left her face as she reached down to help Ranma off the mats. "Sure. Let's go," she said.
The couple found themselves in front of two excited fathers a few minutes later. Genma was slapping Ranma on the back, making comments about taking his time and Soun looked to be getting ready to cry tears of happiness. Just before Ranma and Akane closed the door behind them, they saw their fathers pulling out a bottle of sake and heard them making some comments about a blissful future.
Just before the closed the door, they heard one last voice.
"Akane, Ranma?" Kasumi's called from the kitchen. "Remember to be back in time for dinner."
Akane responded, "Yes, sister, we'll be back for dinner."
It was an idyllic time at the waterfront for the two; they watched the fishermen hawk their fish, peered into different boats, and snacked.
"Nihao!"
Ranma and Akane froze. The high pitched voice was Shampoo's and they didn't want to hear it.
"Husband! I no stay. Must get fish for dinner. You come, no?" Shampoo was on her bicycle, leaning on Ranma's arm.
"Uh, no, Shampoo." Ranma tried to extract his arm from her clutches. "I promised Kasumi I'll be home tonight."
"So violent girl," Shampoo looked at Akane, "not cook tonight. That is good. Sick or dead husband is very bad." Shampoo nuzzled Ranma while watching Akane's reaction.
"Why..." Akane was starting to see red. "You..."
Akane wasn't able to complete her comment, Shampoo had let go of Ranma and started to peddle away.
Ranma's voice worked its way through Akane's anger, "She's gone. Akane, stop."
"That brazen bimbo! Why do you keep her around!"
"I don't keep her around. She just doesn't leave. There's a difference."
Ranma grabbed Akane's hand and gently held it, watching her anger melt away. They resumed their walk by the waterfront, and stopped for a lunch.
"Akane, can you help me with something?"
"He's asking me to help him?" Akane thought. "What is it, Ranma?"
"I wanna buy some stuff for Kasumi and Nabiki. I don' have a lot of money, but I don't know what to get them."
"Why?" she asked. Ranma has never really bought her anything, so she was feeling a little more than jealous.
"Because they've been helping to keep things quiet. How often has somebody come by recently and caused problems? When was the last time you or I got into a fight?
"Kasumi has stopped our fathers from marrying us off more times than I can count. Nabiki still tutors me even when she's mad at me.
"But mostly it's 'cause it's quiet."
"So there's nothing there," Akane thought.
"Ok," she agreed. "I know just what to get them. On the way back we can stop in that store you didn't want to go in." Akane smiled; Ranma had made a scene about not going into the stationary store at the beginning of the waterfront.
The sun was beginning to descend when Ranma and Akane were finished their shopping when Ranma spotted a small wooden duck on a shelf near the cash register. He picked it up and looked at the price, and heard, "No, Ranma."
"What are you talking about, Akane." Ranma was confused.
"You don't need to buy me anything. You need to just get the gifts for my sisters." Akane was happy, knowing that Ranma did think of her and that he was going to buy her something without any prompting warmed her heart.
"But I want to." Ranma sounded even more confused now.
"Thank you, Ranma, for the thoughts, but if you give that to me, it'll cheapen the gifts to Kasumi and Nabiki." Akane did want the duck, but she really wanted him to do the right thing.
Ranma put the duck back, and held Akane's hand. "You sure?"
Akane nodded her head just once.